


Spirit Tracks Remix

by Wingscutdarkness



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Genre: Gen, No Romance, Spirit Tracks Remix, Spoilers, Yay For OC's!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-02-09 02:19:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1965228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wingscutdarkness/pseuds/Wingscutdarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a young girl named Mia inexplicably finds herself in Spirit Tracks, it's up to Link and Zelda to help her find a way home, while at the same time trying to stop the evil Demon King and save Hyrule!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hyrule Castle

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on Fanfiction.Net. But then some things happened and so I took it down along with the rest of my account. I wrote this story so long ago, but I still love it and thought that I may as well post it here instead of having it just sitting in my google docs. :)

I slammed my locker shut and trudged down the hall as the bell rang, signaling the next period in an obnoxious manner. My classmates pushed past me, clearly eager to get to social class for some reason.

I, however, kept my eyes glued to my DS as I reluctantly walked into the classroom and sat down at my desk.  
On screen, I was driving a train to a castle so Link could get an engineer certificate or something. Was it just me, or were Zelda games getting stranger and stranger with their modes of transportation?

"Mia!" My teacher, who was intolerant to having electronic devices in his class, barked. My hand jerked across the touch screen, causing me to accidentally pick the wrong track. I winced as Link collided with an oncoming train, resulting in both trains bursting into flames. Oops.

Then I snapped my DS closed and slid it under my leg, putting on my best 'who, me?' face as I glanced innocently up at Mr. Cooper.

He crossed his arms and frowned slightly, then turned and stalked over to the smart board, stabbing his pointer at a colorful picture of some half-naked prisoner tied to a wheel with a spear sticking through him. I took a minute to grimace at the blood before glancing away, feigning boredom.

"It was a time of great massacre..." Cooper began in his mind-numbingly monotone voice.

When Mr. Cooper starts his lectures, however, I don't have to pretend I’m bored. Suffer from insomnia? Just sit in on one of Mr. Cooper's classes. He's that bad. With an insane amount of willpower, I usually can keep myself awake. For some reason, today I was having a lot of trouble keeping my head up. The sound of drool (not my own) forming puddles on the floor only made me sleepier. Stifling a yawn, I tilted my head back slightly and closed my eyes. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Something poked me in the arm. I mumbled sleepily. Who or whatever had poked me poked me again. Hard. I drew an arm over my head, and rolled over onto my side.

Wait a minute...

I had rolled over. I must have fallen out of my desk onto the floor or something.  
Oh gosh, how embarrassing.

"Hey kid! Hey you! HEY!" An unfamiliar voice shouted in my ear, and my eyes flew open. A bright light momentarily blinded me as I sat up.

"Alright, jeez, I'm up..." Right about then, my vision returned and I cut myself off. "W-what the..."

I seemed to be lying in the middle of the floor of a castle of some sort. Colourful tapestries hung from huge stone walls. Humongous pillars with weird symbols carved into them reached way up towards the domed ceiling, where a stained-glass window sparkled.

"W-What just happened...?"

Whoever had poked me poked again.

"Ow!" I rubbed my arm and stared up at an oldish looking guy holding a ...spear?  
Suddenly realizing how weird he looked, I got up off the floor. "Hey...why are you all cartoony?"

"I have strict orders to report any strange business around the castle. But you're just a kid, so I'll let you go this time." The guy stared suspiciously at me. 

I didn't budge.

"Alright, scram already. You're interfering with my duties." He growled.

"Duties?" I brightened. "Cool, what kind of duties?"

"Y'know...guard duties."

“Are you a guard?”

“Yes.”

"What kind of duties do you have?”

"Regular duties. " The guard snapped.

"Are they important?"

"Yes. Yes they are." The guard said, avoiding eye contact.

"Are you...doing them right now?"

"...Yes." He narrowed his eyes.

I tilted my head a bit. "Huh, really? It looks like you're just standing around doing nothing." 

I'm pretty sure he would have poked me with his spear again if a blonde kid in an engineer outfit hadn't walked up just then.

"Excuse me-"

"What do you want?" The guard snapped at him.

The boy blinked. "Um...I'm here for-"

The guard suddenly straightened up and saluted as an important-looking short guy walked up. He was wearing a suit and had two small hats on top of his head.  
"Chancellor Cole! Sir!"

"I didn't know dwarfs could become chancellors," I said to the engineer kid. He clapped his hands over his mouth to hide a snicker.

The Chancellor turned his attention to me. "How dare you? Who is this ill-mannered girl, hmm?"

"Ugh, I'm so glad you are here, Chancellor. This kid's been hassling me ever since she appeared out of thin air." The guard told the dwarfy guy.

"My name is Mia." I informed them both. "And I'm not a kid! I’m almost old enough to babysit!"

"Hmm." The Chancellor stared at me with beady black eyes. "Let's put her to death." I blinked as he turned his back on me and started talking to the guard.

"Wait, what?!"

"Um...I really, really need to know where to find Princess Zelda..." The blonde boy mumbled. "It's kind of important."

I looked over at him. "Did you just say...Zelda?" 

He blinked as I scrutinized him more thoroughly.  
Blonde hair...kid engineer...Zelda...Wait a minute-

"Are you- Is your name...Link?"

He nodded after a few seconds.

I nervously chewed on my lip.  
Somehow, I seemed to be in that Spirit Tracks game I was playing earlier.  
How….strange.

"Uhm..." I stuttered. "D-did you say you were going to find Princess Zelda?"

"Yes..."

I thought for a minute and decided that if anyone would be able to figure out what was going on, it would probably be Zelda.  
At least, I think she is supposed to be the smart one in these games. Triforce of wisdom and all that. 

I cleared my throat and turned toward the guard and the chancellor. "Hey! I'm with him, and he's late for a very important ceremony! Or...or something!"

The guard and the chancellor stopped talking to each other and glared at me instead. Chancellor Cole hesitated as we walked up and stopped in front of the guard.

"As unfortunate as it is, these two urchins do need to get past. Princess Zelda insisting on performing those ridiculous little ceremonies and all. All right, let them pass."

The guard saluted and stepped aside. I smiled at him as we walked past, and he snorted in a way that clearly said crossing paths with him again would be hazardous to my health.

"How did you know I had a ceremony?" Link asked as we walked down a heavily carpeted hallway and through two big doors.

"Everyone was talking about it earlier?" I lied. 

"Oh. You said your name was Mia, right? What realm are you from? I've never seen you before."

"Um..." I fidgeted with my hands. "Well..."

"Quiet, peasants!" The Chancellor hissed from behind us.

I half turned around and was just about to make another dwarf comment when Cole grinned, exposing a mouthful of sharp, pointed teeth.

I turned forward again and whispered to Link, "I think I know who the bad guy is." 

"Huh?" Link stared blankly at me as we walked up a few steps towards a fancy throne with two doors on either side of it and guards stationed all around.

"Be quiet!" Cole spat, and poked me with one of his pointy fingernails. "You are clearly no engineer and you're lucky I didn't have you thrown out right when I first saw you.” 

I cringed. "You're kind of creepy, you know that?"

"You-" Chancellor Cole began, but was cut off by a fanfare of trumpets, announcing Princess Zelda, I guess. 

Link went up ahead and knelt front of the throne, his head bowed. The chancellor turned and walked rapidly over to the wall on the right side of the throne, taking his position between two guards. The look in his eyes told me that if he caught me...bad things would probably happen. So for the rest of the ceremony, I stayed close to the entrance. Just in case I needed to make a quick exit.

One of the doors beside the throne opened and a girl walked in. She was wearing a pink dress and her blonde hair fell neatly down her back. Princess Zelda. I recognized her from that Zelda game with the talking boat. I frowned. Why couldn't Nintendo make her look a little different than her ancestors?

While I was thinking about that sort of stuff, Link had became an official engineer. Or at least that is what I figured from the heroic pose he had just struck and the official-looking piece of paper he was holding in the air.

After giving something else to Link, Princess Zelda turned and walked out of the room, followed closely by mostly all the guards. I didn't get a chance to talk to her. Aww. I sighed in disappointment, and then dove behind a nearby pillar when I noticed the Chancellor looking towards me.

Footsteps came closer and I squeezed my eyes shut.

I nervously waited, and my breath whooshed out of my lungs once he passed by my hiding spot, barely missing me. A few seconds later, I inched out from behind the pillar, looked down the hallway, and realized that it was Link who actually had passed me and not the Chancellor. Oops.

I ran after him. He turned to face me as I came closer.

"Look!" He proudly held up his certificate and grinned. "I'm an engineer now!"

"That's really great!” I beamed. “What else did Princess Zelda give you?" 

Link frowned, then obviously decided to trust me. "Just a letter.” He said. “It said that she wanted me to meet her in her room and she had a favor to ask me. Oh, and to look out for the Chancellor."

I stared at him. "So, Princess Zelda knows something about the Chancellor? Did she tell you how to get to her room?"

"She gave me this map," Link held out a piece of paper. I took it from him and scanned it for directions. 

"Can I come with you? I need to talk to her too."

"Oh. Why?"

"Because..." I started, then stopped, not knowing how to tell him. Or if I should tell him at all. The last thing I need is someone else thinking I'm crazy. "Because-"

"Because you appeared out of thin air?"

…  
Stupid, loudmouth castle guards.

"...Uh, y-yes..." I braced myself to run if he started screaming or something. Link's eyes widened a bit...but he didn't freak out. 

"So, you aren't from around here and you just randomly appeared in the castle. You think that Princess Zelda can help you somehow, and that's why you want to talk to her?" 

"Uh...yeah. Pretty much."

"Oh. Weird." Link took the letter back from me and started heading down a random hallway I hadn't noticed before. I hoped he was better at directions then I was.

He had picked a narrow, dim, and dusty-smelling passageway, and we started going down it. When he stopped suddenly, I barely managed to stop myself from ramming into him. He turned to face me, and I was a tiny bit unnerved by his big cartoonish eyes. I wondered if my eyes looked like that now. Probably.

"Do you really think the Chancellor is bad?" He asked very seriously.

"Yeah!" I shuddered when I remembered his unnaturally sharp teeth and fingernails. 

Link turned and walked towards a flickering light at the end of the hallway that was a torch attached to the wall beside a wooden door.  
"Really?" He asked over his shoulder and eased the heavy door open slowly.

"Well I don’t know. He might be, he might not be." I whispered as we tiptoed to another door right across from the one we had come out of. “It’s actually probably too early to tell.” 

Link stopped and cautiously turned the door knob. I was immediately assaulted by a strong cloud of perfume and coughed a few times. The sound of something like a flute being played floated through the air. Pretty much every single object in the room was coloured various shades of pink. 

The music was coming from Zelda, who was standing with her back to us and playing a pan flute with green tassels.  
Link brushed past me and stepped further into the room. I cleared my throat loudly.

"I'm so glad you could make it." Zelda put her flute down in a holder and turned to face us. "I-"  
She froze when she saw me.  
"Link...I thought I told you to come alone. Who is this?" 

"I'm Mia." I told her helpfully. 

"She appeared out of nowhere and wants you to help her find her way home." Link explained. 

"Oh..." Zelda looked confused and wary.

"I know I’m not dreaming, because when I got poked with a spear, it hurt." I told her, and pushed my hair behind my ear. 

Then I noticed a mirror across the room and brightened, skirting around Zelda and trotted towards it. I was really hoping that I didn't look like any of the creepy islanders in Phantom Hourglass. To my relief, I still looked normal. My eyes were a little more cartoonish, but that only made sense. Overall, I looked the same. Same dark hair. Same annoying freckles.

I turned away from my reflection and saw Link and Zelda both staring at me.

"What?" I asked them.

Zelda glanced at Link. "I don't think I personally could do anything to help you Mia, but I have an idea. The reason I asked Link to come to my room was to see if he would take me to the Tower of Spirits on his train. The train tracks that cover the land and connect at the tower have been disappearing everywhere, you see. Something must have happened at the tower."

"Well, that kind of makes sense." Link frowned thoughtfully. “And the tracks have been disappearing pretty fast.”

"I've heard stories of a sage who lives in the tower, and I want to talk to her to see if she knows what's going on." Zelda continued. "She's supposed to be very smart."

"That's probably why she’s a Sage!" I realized happily. Sometimes I amaze myself with how smart I can be.

Zelda was silent for a few seconds. "Anyways," she finally continued, "Chancellor Cole doesn't let me out of the castle normally due to 'safety reasons'. I'm pretty sure he just wants to keep me away from the tower." She mused to herself. "But why?"

"Well, he's obviously hiding something." I told her. I thought Zelda was supposed to be smart!

Link spoke up, "I can take you guys to the tower on my train! But, how are we going to get out without any of the guards noticing?"

Zelda pointed at a stack of green clothes folded on the floor.

"Here. With those, you can pretend you're a recruit; you should be able to walk around without any of the guards noticing you. If you can find some way of distracting them, Mia and I can sneak past."

"Wow, you must have been planning this for a long time." I had to admit, she's pretty resourceful.

"Yes," Zelda said curtly. "Now please change clothes, Link. We need to leave as soon as possible." 

I turned around, then glanced sideways at the princess. "Are you going to turn around?”

“Of course I’m going to turn around!” Zelda hurriedly turned her back to Link, her face slightly red. "How...how do you know Link?" She asked me a few seconds later.

"Well, I don't really know him. I’ve never seen him before- Well, I know who he is but- I mean, I followed him to the throne room but today is the first time I've ever seen him in person." I babbled. 

"Hmm." Zelda said. 

I snuck a glance over at her face and grinned. It was so cool to be talking to an iconic video game character! Cool and a little bit freaky!

"Okay, I'm done." Link announced and we turned around. He was now dressed in a green tunic and hat, his old clothes on a pile on the floor.

Zelda looked him over, then nodded. "Looks...good enough, I guess."


	2. Cole and Byrne

After sprinting like crazy while Link distracted the guards, and getting dirt stains on our clothes from kneeling behind walls, Zelda and I finally made it to the castle gate.

"We made it!" Zelda panted. 

"Finally!" I wiped the dirt off my jeans.

"Why did that seem so much easier for you than me?" Zelda asked. She was nearly bent over with her hands on her knees and I was leaning against the gate as we waited for Link.

"I don't know." I shrugged. "Maybe because I'm not wearing a dress?"

"Hmm." Zelda straightened up and fixed her hair.

Link walked up a few seconds later.

"Hi! Where's your train?" I looked around Castle Town.

A huge fountain gleamed in the middle of the path; plumes of water sprayed up and sparkled as they caught the sun. Colorful shops lined the street. At the end of the street, I saw a small, wooden train and immediately recognized it as the train I had accidentally crashed.

"Found it!" I said as the three of us started making our way towards the train station. As we got closer, I realized that the train was a lot bigger seeing it up close. I hoped that Link's driving skills were better than mine.

Link jumped up the platform ahead of us. "So, what do you think?" He asked, looking at me.

"As long as it will get us to the spirit tower!" 

"Tower of Spirits." Zelda corrected me.

"Of course it will!" Link grinned, and went over to open the door to the passenger car.

"Link, what took so long?" Said someone from inside. "I've been waiting forever!"

"I'm sorry Alfonzo! Something came up, and-" Link stepped aside to let Zelda enter. "-Princess Zelda wants us to take her to the Tower of Spirits."

"Oh, your highness!" The guy said, and it sounded like he jumped to his feet. After talking to him for a bit, Zelda finally moved, leaving the doorway open. Finally!  
I tripped over the stairs as I was getting into the train car and almost landed on my face. Zelda covered her mouth with her hands, but I still heard her laugh.

"Ouch...uh...ouch." Embarrassed, I got to my feet and hurriedly sat down in the nearest empty seat, which happened to be across the aisle from a big guy with a bandanna on his forehead. He must be Alfonzo, Link's engineer mentor.

"Hi!" I nodded at him, then looked back at Zelda, who I had noticed was still grinning from watching me trip. "You could have moved out of the doorway faster." I told her and slumped down in my seat, annoyed at being laughed at. "You were the one who was in a big hurry in the first place."

Alfonzo looked at Link.

"Oh, this is Mia," Link chirped, coming out from behind Zelda and walking back over to the door. "She's coming to the tower too."

"Alright then. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Alfonzo turned to me and stuck out his hand. I shook it formally and giggled.

Zelda sighed. "We should probably get going now, Link."

"Okay, we'll be there in a flash!" Link slammed the door behind him. I saw him walk to the front of the train through the windows. A few seconds later, the engine roared to life and with a jerk, we started moving.

Alfonzo turned to me. "Say, Mia, did you know that I used to be a famous swordsman?"

I stared at him. "Really?"

He grinned and gestured to the sword on the seat beside him. "Only the best of my time."

"That's so cool! Did you ever fight any monsters?"

Alfonzo chuckled. "Lots! Hundreds, probably."

"Wow...!" I turned to Zelda. "Zelda, did you hear that?"

Zelda started to answer, but then the train pitched violently to one side. It skidded sideways for a few seconds before it leveled out again and stopped.

I groaned and pushed myself off the floor. "How the heck did Link graduate with driving skills like that?"

Zelda shakily stood up and headed towards the door. "Maybe something happened to him!" She said worriedly and opened the carriage door, rushing forwards as fast as she could in that fancy dress.

I followed Alfonzo outside and saw Link lying on the ground. There were little pieces of broken machinery all over the grass. The train looked totalled.

"Alfonzo! The tracks! They just disappeared!" Link wheezed. 

I did a quick 360. Link wasn't kidding. Where there had once been tracks leading from the castle towards the big tower that we were heading for, there was just grass. Nothing to indicate that tracks had ever been there. Everything was strangely quiet, no bird noises or anything.

"I was right!" Zelda sounded very distressed. "Something is terribly wrong!"

I looked up at the tower before she could reply and saw dark, tendrils of smoke slowly spiralling down the sides of the tower. They seemed to be coming from a cloud of darkness that swirled directly above the tower and rapidly grew larger, electricity sparking across the middle.

"Uh, g-guys?" I stuttered.

A blue wave of electricity shot out of the cloud and down the sides of the tower, splitting it into four pieces. The pieces of tower began spinning slowly, hanging suspended in the air by some strange force. All that was left on the ground was the base. I stared, bug-eyed. Alfonzo, Zelda, and Link came and stood beside me, and we all stared up in horror at the huge tower parts.

"Your highness! Look over there!" 

We all looked to where Alfonzo was pointing. A little to the left of the tower another dark cloud was forming. Just as I was wondering how things could possibly get any weirder, something monstrous that could only be described as a demon train roared out of the cloud, heading straight at us.

Zelda shrieked and we all covered our heads. Like that would have made much of a difference if it had decided to hit us. A strong rush of wind almost knocked me over, and a shower of grit pelted us as the creepy train flew over our heads and disappeared into the distance.

"Did that train have a...face?" I asked, getting up off of the ground and grimacing when I noticed I was covered in dust.

"Wh-what was that?" Zelda looked frightened.

Link pulled off his hat and beating it against his leg to get the dust out.

"Out for a leisurely stroll, your highness?" A nauseating and familiar voice reached my ears. "You know that's not allowed!"

"Not allowed by who? You, Chancellor Cole?" Zelda said defiantly as I hid behind Alfonzo.

"That's right! Me! The one who's really in charge!" 

I peeked out from behind Alfonzo just in time to see Cole's hats spontaneously fly off his head, revealing lopsided horns. Whoa...!

"It's so tiring to pretend to be human all the time." Cole sighed.

I noticed another evil-looking guy walk up from behind him. From what I could see of him, he was tall, had a dark ponytail, and a cloth covering the lower part of his face, Sheik style. What caught my attention the most was a metal hand thing on the end of his left arm. He looked about five times more threatening than Cole.

"I had meant to keep up the ruse for a little longer, but you pushed me too this." Cole growled.

"What are you talking about Cole?" Zelda stepped forward. Cole sighed and walked a few steps to the side.

"I'm talking about your infernal meddling." He glanced at me with immense dislike, his orange mustache twitching.

"What? What did I do?" I asked, confused.

Cole paid no more attention to me.   
"Now that those vile train tracks are gone, the time has finally come!" He turned to Princess Zelda with creepy look on his face. "Now all we need is you, your highness!"

Zelda gasped, and Alfonzo hurriedly stepped in front of her, his arms stretched out.

"I don't know who these guys are, your highness, but they are obviously bad news." Alfonzo grasped his sword and threw the sheath to the side. "With your permission, I'd be happy to take care of them."

Chancellor Cold gave another creepy giggle and floated up into the air. I cringed. He can fly too?

"Do not think that I don't know what I'm doing Cole. I have served the royal family for years!" Alfonzo carved a few double-handed strokes in the air with his sword.

Cole looked up at the ponytail guy, who now stood beside him. "Melodrama is so incredibly boring." He said tiredly. "Byrne, would you please dispose of this fool?"

"This man speaks the truth, Cole." The ponytail guy, apparently Byrne, replied. "His moments are not those of an amateur." He glanced briefly over at me standing there and shivering, and then pointed his metal hand at Alfonzo. "But he is only human."

The two began to circle each other. Alfonzo suddenly struck out with a blow aimed at Byrne's head. Byrne blocked the attack, but Alfonzo pressed forward, raining a flurry of strikes down on his opponent. Each time, Byrne blocked them with his claw, metal meeting metal with a clang that rang in my ears. I cringed each time Alfonzo was almost too late to block Byrne's attacks.

Then, their weapons locked together.

"I told you, I will protect the princess at any cost!"

Byrne shoved Alfonzo slightly downwards. "And I told you. You're only human." He said cooly.

They broke away from each other and spun back around. Byrne charged, and Alfonzo raised his sword in a defensive position. I noticed Byrne's metal hand start glowing with an ominous purple light, and opened my mouth to warn Alfonzo, but I was too late.

Byrne crashed into Alfonzo so hard that Alfonzo flew backwards into the passenger car. He slumped to the ground, little flickers of electricity sparking all over his body. I stared at him in horror. Zelda gave a little scream.

Laughing, Cole danced in the air around Byrne's head. "Excellent work Byrne! You do know how to put on a show!"

"It wasn't a fair fight, Cole." Byrne replied, then started walking towards Zelda.

"Help me Link!" Zelda stood frozen as Byrne moved closer.

Link immediately threw himself in front of her. Byrne took one look at Link and swatted him out of the way with his bare arm. I gasped as Link flew through the air, just like Alfonzo had earlier. He landed hard on the packed ground, and gave a squeak of pain, while Byrne continued towards Zelda.

"Oh no, Link! Mia! Help me!” 

“W-what? Um-“ I hesitated as Zelda ran behind me. 

"You!" Chancellor Cole rose in the air, holding two crackling orbs of energy in his hands. "I should have taken care of you a long time ago!"

Uh oh.

He fired the orbs at me, and I dove out of the way, resulting in the projectiles hitting Princess Zelda.

"Ahh!" She crumpled to the ground and became deathly still.

I stared at motionless body, my eyes wide. "O-Oh my gosh..."

"Pesky brat!" Cole hissed. 

I looked up, just as Byrne stormed over and grabbed me around my middle. "Ahh! Let me go!" I squirmed and kicked, tried to hit him, but I couldn't reach. He regarded me for a minute, then brought his metal hand around hard, hitting at my ankle. Then he dropped me.

I fell to the ground, writhing in pain, trying my hardest not to scream out loud. It felt like my leg had been snapped in two. Byrne’s shadow fell over me, and I stared up at him, holding my swelling ankle. Tears of pain filled my eyes and I gave a shuddering gasp of fear as Byrne's hand started glowing with that weird blue electricity again.

I raised my hand in front of my face and shrieked as a bolt of power shot toward me. I clenched my teeth and braced for the searing pain...which never came. Instead, the electricity ran in a smooth line from Byrne's hand into...my hand somehow. All I felt was a warm tingling. It was almost weird enough to distract myself from my ankle.  
Then the electricity Byrne was shooting at me slowed to a trickle and he staggered backwards slightly, a bewildered expression on his face.

“Wh-what…?” I breathed, then realized that I probably be dead or something. I immediately flopped over on the ground, twitching my good foot a few times and trying to act dead.

"Good work Byrne. You have no idea how much trouble that pest has given me. Now grab the princess and let's get out of here." Cole said gleefully.

I cracked one eye open just in time to see Byrne grab Zelda and tuck her under his arm. The two then started walking towards a distant forest, taking Zelda with them.


	3. Anjean

I waited until I was sure they were gone before sitting up and assessing the damage done to my ankle. I tried to move it and had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. It really hurt, and I was pretty sure that something was broken.

I looked over at Link, who was lying on the ground with his limbs splayed out. "Link! Link, wake up!"

No response.

I made a fist and punched the ground, tears of frustration and pain welling up in my eyes. The moment my fist hit the ground, a reaction of some sort was triggered. I stared as electricity danced across my palm, and my skin began to light up from the inside. My hand continued to glow bright blue and crackle.

"What the..."

There was a flash of light that sliced through my eyelids, and then it was over. I felt slightly spent as if I had just run a marathon. I blinked away the spots in my vision and gasped for air, feeling more than a little freaked out.  
What was happening to me?

I reached down and clutched at my ankle, which had started to *really* hurt. Through eyes blurred with tears of pain, I noticed there was now some sort of symbol on the back of my left hand; a swirly, spirally sort of thing.

I forced myself to stay calm. After all, this was technically a video game, and weird things do happen in video games.  
Hmm...

Closing my eyes again, I experimentally concentrated on the pain my foot, which...immediately lessened.  
My eyes flew open and I saw the symbol on my hand pulsing. I let go of my ankle. The swelling reduced as I watched, and in no time at all, it was as if I had never been hurt. I swallowed. "That's...I can..." I whispered aloud. Then my head started spinning and I swayed dizzily. The last thing I heard before embarrassingly fainting, was someone shouting something and footsteps pounding   
on the grass.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When I woke up, I was lying in a small bed, staring up at an old guy with white hair and glasses.  
"Gah!" I choked in surprise.

He jumped and looked down at me disapprovingly. "I drag you all the way back to the castle, and this is how you show your gratitude?"

I glanced around. Link and Alfonzo were lying asleep on beds beside me.

"Oh..." I nodded at Alfonzo, who had a nasty-looking bruise on his temple. "Is he okay?"

The guy, who looked like a professor of some sort, adjusted his glasses and nodded. "He'll be fine."

I stretched my arms out and swung my legs over the side of the bed. Then the earlier events of the day came rushing back to me and I jumped up and ran over to Link, shaking him to wake him up. "Link? Link!"

He groaned and squinted up at me.

I shook him again. "Link!"

"Mia? What-" His eyes came into focus and he sat upright. "Princess Zelda! What happened? Did you save her?"

"No. That creep Cole tried to hit me with this evil power stuff, but accidentally hit Zelda instead." I explained, leaving out the part where it was technically my fault that that had happened to the princess.

The professor guy looked distressed. "What are you saying? The princess is not in the castle?"

I waited impatiently for Link to pull his boots on. "That's exactly what I'm saying! Cole and Byrne grabbed Zelda and took her towards the woods! But... but then this really weird thing happened. Byrne hurt my ankle, and then shot electricity out of his metal hand, trying to kill me. But I think I somehow…absorbed his power instead."

Link stood up and straightened his tunic. "What do you mean?"

"Well...my hand now has a weird symbol on it, and my ankle doesn't hurt me anymore." I showed my hand to Link.

"...So...what, you have magical powers now?"

"I-I don't know. I think I should go talk to that tower sage that Zelda was talking about." I told him, pushing past the professor and heading towards the door.

"I'll come with you. Two of us would have a better chance of saving Zelda."

We left the room, leaving a very confused professor behind us and walked towards someone standing in front of a staircase. I stopped when I recognized the guard from earlier.

Link slammed into me from behind.

"Shh!" I hissed, pulling him back the way we came by his sleeve. "I don't think he saw me."

"Is that-"

"Yup."

I was just about to ask Link if we should find another way out of the castle, when something strange caught my eye. A small ball of white light was floating in the air towards the guard. It looked like a fairy without wings. Unexpectedly, the ball grew outwards, and a transparent figure appeared.

"Hello? Can you hear me? I need your help!"

I gasped. "Link, is that...Princess Zelda?"

"Why can't anybody hear me?" Zelda said softly, then floated right through the guard and into the throne room.

"Wait...if Zelda's a ghost, does that mean she's dead?" Link asked, a worried expression on his face. I had wondered the same thing.

"Let's follow her!"

"Okay. I'll go distract that guard." Link walked out and started talking to the guard, and I was able to sneak past him when his back was turned.

Link met me in the throne room. We followed Zelda through one of the doors beside the throne.

"I hope she's alright..." Link said as we opened the door to Zelda's room a few seconds later.

The ghostly version of Zelda was floating in the middle of the room and turned around when she heard us come in. "Can...can you see me?" Her voice wavered.

We nodded.

"What happened to me? Why am I like this?" Zelda floated up to the ceiling and flew around in a circle a few times.

"I don't know...but Cole has your body." I told her. "He and that Byrne guy took it."

Zelda looked horrified. “They took my body?” 

“We should go to that tower you were talking about!” I suggested.

"But how? My train is broken and the tracks are gone!" Link pointed out. We were silent for a moment as we contemplated this new dilemma.

"Hey!" I snapped my fingers. "We'll go out the back way!"

"How do you know there's a back way?" Zelda asked suspiciously.

"Isn't there always a back way in these games?"

"Yeah...hey Link, do you still have that map I gave you?" Zelda asked.

Link reached into his pocket or something and pulled out the letter. "Here." He held it out so Zelda could see it.

Zelda floated over to him. I leaned in closer so I could see what she was doing. "...The only back entrance I know of is here," She said, reluctantly pointing somewhere on the map.

"There's probably someone is guarding that door, right?" I asked.

Zelda looked sideways at me. "Yeah...why?"

"Well...don't you think you should get a sword before we go, Link? The guard probably won't let you by without one. And plus, there might be monsters on the way to the tower." I shivered.

"..I guess it would be smart to take safety precautions," Zelda said slowly.

I brightened. "Yeah! And that way, if we run into Cole and Byrne again, Link can totally get them back!"

Link didn't look so sure. "Do you know where I could get a sword, Zelda?"

"I suppose the Captain of the Guard has some spares. He's usually in the training room." She answered. "C'mon, let's go." She floated towards the door and we started following her. "Oh, I almost forgot!"

"Gah!" I shuddered as she turned and flew right through us, to back where her flute was sitting in its stand. "Don't do that! It's creepy!"

"This flute has been passed down through our family for generations." Zelda said. "I think it is meant to protect me, but I can't carry it in this state, so I want to give it to you. Link? Will you take it?"

Link picked up the flute.

"Da na na naaaa!" I sang happily.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After Link managed to borrow a sword from the captain guy, we finally made it through the castle and to the back door.  
"Sorry kids. I can't let you pass with at least one sword between ya!" The guy on duty said. "Oh wait!" He suddenly noticed. "I see you've got yourself a sword!"

Link nodded. "So that means we can past, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Yay!!" I grinned as he stepped aside and pushed open the door. Link and I walked out into the sunlight, and Zelda floated a little down the grassy path that led away from the castle.

"Let's go find that sage." She said.

We went up to an opening in the middle of a wall of rock. A sticky strand of spider web brushed against my face as I stepped into the dark tunnel, and I shuddered, little goosebumps pricking up on my arm. It was completely dark and damp and musty. It was pretty creepy. "Link? Zelda?" I called as I cautiously inched my way through the darkness. My voice echoed back to me. "L-Link? Z-zelda?"

Miraculously, I managed to find and exit and stumbled into the sunlight again, very close to the Tower of Spirits.

"Eww...!" I felt something crawling on my ear and brushed it away. A small, black spider dropped to the ground and scuttled away before I could stomp on it. "Hey, thanks for waiting up for me you guys..." I said, mainly to Zelda, who was floating beside Link as he trotted towards the tower. Link stopped trotting and turned around.

"Oh, you...made it through the tunnel..." Zelda said in what I thought was a disappointed manner.

"No thanks to you guys..." I shuddered. For all I knew, there were more spiders somewhere in my hair.

"Sorry Mia! I thought you were right behind us!" He said, scratching one of his ears and looking up at me with his big eyes. I felt a little bad for snapping.

"It's okay! Let's just go." I smiled apologetically. Zelda frowned for some reason, compacted into a ball of light, and streaked away.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

She was waiting for us once we caught up to her at the tower.

"What took you so long?" She asked us, sitting up on a large stone statue of a train.

Surprisingly, the inside of the tower looked neat and tidy, considering the state that the top parts were in. There were stone maps hanging on the walls of the round, immense room. And… strangely enough, I think I could somehow feel a weak aura of power surrounding the whole place. Maybe it had something to do with the weird symbol on my hand.

"Hey! Not all of us can fly, you know." I giggled, coming over to the statue that she was sitting on.

"Ha ha," She said dryly.

Link went over to inspect a nearby map hanging on the wall.

I looked at the stone train. "You know, this could be a very important slab of stone. You might not want to be sitting on it. Even though you're a ghost, it might be so old that it could crack under any amount of weight."

"What?!" Zelda gasped.

I was about to repeat myself when someone behind me coughed and said, "She's right, my dear."


	4. The Spirit Tracks

"What did you say?" Zelda gasped indignantly as whoever it was who had spoken spoke again from some unknown place.

"I meant that the train is indeed important. It is, in fact the Spirit Train." A small, wise-looking, elderly person in a little chair on wheels of some sort came out of the shadow of the statue. She had kind eyes and most shockingly, a tower of pink hair that curled at the top.

"My name is Anjean. I am the sage who dwells in this tower." She introduced herself, then seemed to notice that Zelda was a ghost. "Whatever happened to you my dear?"

"That Cole guy attacked us." I said. "And this other guy who was with him tried to kill me, but this happened instead." I showed her the weird symbol.

"Hmm..." She peered down at it. For a fraction of a second, I thought I saw a strange flicker in her eyes. I blinked, and her expression was back to normal.

"Am I glad to see you!" Zelda exclaimed, floating down from the stone train. "We need your help!"

Anjean tore her gaze away from my hand and studied Zelda. "Hmm, yes. You do look rather hideous."

"Hideous!?" Zelda gasped. "How dare you?"

I giggled.

"Now, now my dear. Don't get your feathers too ruffled." Anjean chuckled. "We have a more important matter to discuss. Tell me, do you know the story of this tower?"

"Only what I have heard in the folktales..." Zelda muttered. "A long time ago, the spirits of good and the Demon King were embroiled on a never-ending war. In the end, the spirits could not defeat him, so they trapped him in this tower."

I yawned and sat down, leaning back against the stone train. I saw Link looking a little glassy-eyed, so I patted the ground beside me, inviting him to sit down.

"It's not chains or bars that keep him imprisoned, but an energy that flows between the tower and the four temples that surround it." Anjean continued Zelda's story.

"Oh, of course Anjean! Then the Spirit Tracks..." Zelda trailed off.

"Correct, my dear. The Spirit Tracks carry that energy. If the tracks are lost, then the tower's energy will fade. And so will the Demon King's prison."

"Hey...how do these demons stay alive for so long anyways?" I asked. They seemed not to have heard me.

"I believe that is just what that evil pair you spoke of are up to. They want to resurrect Malladus, the Demon King. Right now, my strength maintains his shackles, but it's only a matter of time until they are broken." Anjean became silent for a moment, then resumed her explanation. "Of course, in order to resurrect Malladus, they need a vessel from the royal line of ancient Hyrule. Yes. Malladus requires you in order to return." She pointed to Zelda. "But...only your shell, my dear. It would be the only vessel that he would be able to inhabit."

It then became peacefully quiet. I closed my eyes, and then jumped as the silence was broken.

"Nooooooo!" Zelda shrieked. "The Demon King is going to inhabit my body? That's too disgusting for words!"

I opened my eyes to see Zelda flying straight at us. "Ahh!"

"We HAVE to stop them! We can't let that Demon King return!" She said, her eyes stretched wide.

"My thoughts exactly." Anjean said calmly. "At the top of this tower is your body. And also, the Demon King's spirit. To stop him from taking your body, you must rebuild and fortify his prison. To do this, restore the tracks between the temples and this tower."

Zelda flew over to Anjean. "But how? How do we bring back the Spirit Tracks?"

"You must re-energize the rail maps." Anjean turned, pointing at the wall where I had seen the stone maps hanging earlier. "As you know, the tower is currently filled with evil energy. But if you seek out the four sages, they will each be able to help restore the tracks leading to the temples. The first sage is a Lokomo like myself, one known as Gage. He dwells in the forest realm, so that is the map you will want to take first."

"Of course. Thank you Anjean." Zelda said briefly, then spun back to us. "You have a very important mission ahead of you Link. The kingdom is counting on you. You understand the gravity of the situation, don't you? You must go find the sages and restore the temples to normal! I will wait for you here. That is what princesses have always done!"

"Family tradition?" I inquired, as Zelda leaned closer, a frenzied look in her eyes.

"No need to be scared-“ Anjean cleared her throat loudly, drawing Zelda's attention away from us.

"Thank you!" I breathed in relief. It was kind of weird to have a ghost right in your face.

"Sorry to interrupt such an, um, enthusiastic pep talk, but restoring the tower alone would be quite impossible. Link absolutely cannot go alone." Anjean said.

"Oh. Well, I feel terrible asking, but...Anjean, can you go with Link?" Zelda asked.  
"But Zelda, she on wheels!" I said.

"Then what should we do? Should we go back and get some guards, or-"

I jumped up in alarm. "No! That's a really bad idea! How about you just go with him?"

"But I wouldn't be able to help him when I'm like this, Mia." Zelda pointed out.

"Well," Anjean rolled her way over to us. "This kingdom is your responsibility. You must not forget that, dear."

"Yeah. You'll probably find some way to help us." Link said.

"Wait, us?" I asked. "But-but...I'm just trying to get home!"

"Mia, Anjean can't help you unless we fix the tower, and if you helped, it would probably go a lot faster." Link pointed out.

"But..."

Anjean placed an aged hand on my shoulder. "You should go with Link. I sense you will be a help on his journey."

"But what about-" I started, then clamped my mouth shut as Anjean's gaze flickered down to my hand, then back up to my eyes.

"I simply cannot help you now. Go with Link and Zelda, Mia. Some things you must find out for yourself." Anjean patted my shoulder.

"So...the sooner we fix the tower, the sooner I'll get home?"

"That is correct."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find that forest Lokomo!" I walked over to the wall, where four stone map pieces were hanging a few inches apart from each other.

"But how are we going to get there without a train? Or tracks to the forest?" Zelda asked while I fingered the rough, worn texture of the maps and looked for the one with the most trees.

"You may take this." Anjean replied as I carefully unhooked what I assumed was the forest map. For such a thick slab of rock, it was surprisingly light.

"Hey you guys," I tucked the map under one arm and turned around to see Anjean raise her arms in the air and a golden ray of light shine down on the train statue. Little sparkles fluttered to the floor. I stared as the rock transformed into a colorful train, much sturdier looking than Link's previous one. Cool. Anjean lowered her arms and slumped in her chair, looking very spent.

Okay, so now we have a train, but what about...

On a sudden whim, I rushed forward and held the map right side up, catching the few remaining sparkles of light. Bending my face forward, I smiled as the tracks engraved into the surface began to glow.


	5. The Forest Temple

Before long, we were onboard the Spirit Train, traveling on the few tracks that had reappeared thanks to the sparkling map. I was sitting on the edge of the conductor platform, swinging my legs in the air and holding the partially re-energized rail map in my lap.

"That was really cool how you used the last of Anjean's power to make some tracks come back!" Link said over the wind, both hands glued to the gearshift lever things.

"Yeah, I hope it was enough to get us to Gage! According to this he should be- Oh! Turn left!" I told him. Link switched paths, and the train leaned sharply to the left before leveling out again. 

"Sorry," I carefully stood up and moved beside him while we were on a relatively straight path. "So, see how there's a weird little station marked 'forest sanctuary'? On the other side of that forest?" I propped the map up on the control panel thing so he could see.

"Uh-huh," Link said, concentrating on the road between glances.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Gage would be there, so we should head that way.”

"Who put you in charge?" Zelda's voice sliced through the wind. She was flying beside us, and doing a really good job of keeping up with the train. 

"I asked Mia to help," Link explained. "It's hard to hold that map and control the train at the same time."

"...Oh, well, do you know where we're are going Mia?" Zelda asked.

"Uh-huh, I think so!" I pointed at the dark smudge of trees up ahead. Zelda landed in the car and peered over Link's shoulder at the map.

"Hmm. The Lost Woods." She read aloud.

The light dimmed as we entered the thick forest; the trees blocking out the sunshine.   
"Are you sure we are going the right way?" Zelda asked doubtfully. A large spider-like creature lowered itself down on a web in the trees behind her. I cringed as we passed by.

"Yes..." My voice wavered as a crossroad appeared in front of us. "Just...can you stop the train for a second?" There had to be some trick to this version of the Lost Woods. I was fairly confident that I could figure it out.

"We should just keep going." Zelda said quickly.   
Link hesitated, and all the while the railway crossing came closer.   
"We'll probably waste time or get lost if we stop." Zelda insisted.

“No, Zelda, we have to stop!” I panicked a little, grabbing the lever that I hoped was the brake and yanking it back. 

"Whoa!" Link gulped and jumped to hold onto something. 

"Mia!" Zelda yelped as the train screeched and abruptly slowed down. "What are you doing?" We came to a hideous stop, not two feet in front of the fork in the tracks.

"Zelda, I know all about the Lost Woods. If we don't take the right paths, we'll never make it out." I tried to explain. 

"That's ridiculous!" Zelda huffed. "They're just woods!"

"Well fine! I guess we're gonna get lost then, and then stuck here forever!" Annoyed, I slid down and sat on the floor of the train car.

"Okay then, Link, can you start the train?" Zelda turned her back on me.

I sighed, and then jumped as one of those large spiders dropped in front of my face.  
"Ahhhh!" I raised my hand in front of my face, and... the disgusting thing somehow got zapped with a quick shock of purple light. I blinked. "What the...."

We all watched the spider as it twitched a few times and disintegrated into a small evil cloud.

"Did you just..." Zelda looked back and forwards between me and Link with wide eyes. I stared at the swirly symbol on the back of my hand. 

“I…I guess.” I said in what sounded like a small voice. “That's why I needed to talk to Anjean. I was hoping she could explain to me why…this is happening to me.” I gestured to where the spider had disappeared. Zelda stared at my hand.

"Wow. You must be really freaked out." She said softly, looking a little sorry for me. I stood up and retrieved the map, which had wedged under some sort of lever.

"Yeah, a little..." I confessed. "But look, we all need to get the tower fixed for some reason or another. Link needs the tracks in order to drive his train, you need your body back, and I need to get home. So maybe we should all just try to work together, okay?” 

I peeked over at Zelda just in time to see a look of determination come over her face before she smiled.  
"Yeah, okay!" 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

After we got going, we discovered that when we going the right way, the symbol on my hand conveniently got a little brighter. We were able to use this strange, new ability to direct us through the dark woods to a small clearing. When Link pulled into the small station, we all jumped out. Except for Zelda I guess, who kind of floated. 

"If only it was that easy in all the other games," I giggled as Link and Zelda disembarked. "Nice driving, by the way." I complimented as we all headed towards a closed door in a rock wall. 

"Thanks." Link grinned. 

"Hey, look at all those statues!" Zelda flew ahead of us, through a bunch of bright blue butterflies hovering over the over-grown grass. Placed a few feet away from each other was a ring of statues in a semi-circle around the sealed doorway in the rock wall. All the statues had faces, but not all of them were facing the same directions. I walked up to one and inspected in for strange markings or anything. Nothing.

"What do you think these are for, Mia?" Link wandered over to the rock wall.

"I don't really know!" I joined him and knocked on the rocks a few times. 

"Guys! Look at this!" Zelda was hovering in front of a sign of some sort on the wall. Closer inspection revealed it was a picture of the statues with writing along the bottom.

" 'Draw a line between the two statues whose gazes meet'." Link read. I turned and regarded the real statues, easily picking out the only ones that were facing each other.

"Okay, well that would be those two," I pointed at the correct statues on the picture. "Does anyone have a pen?"

"Why a pen?" Zelda asked.

"Well the instructions say to draw a line between them, right?"   
This was probably a part of the game that required the use of a stylus.

"Maybe it means like this," Link put his finger on the one statue on the map and dragged it across to the other one. We all jumped as there was a muffled boom and the door slid downwards, into the earth and out of sight. A soft, flickering glow shone from the revealed chamber.

“Nice!" I held up my hand for a high five. Link complied, and we all went into the cave. In the center sat a Lokomo in another chair with wheels. Like Anjean, he was short and had funky hair, which was big and green. 

"Hello, we're looking for the sage of the forest. Are you Gage?" Zelda asked. I wonder if he would be able to see her.

"Welcome! Welcome! Yes, I am Gage. And you must be the youngsters trying to restore the Spirit Tracks!" The Lokomo extended his arms in greeting, speaking in a loud voice.

"Uhh, yeah!" I held out the map tentatively. "We were told you could help us get to the temple..."

"In order to restore the tracks that will get you to the temple, we must perform a duet together using the sacred Lokomo instruments."

“W-what?" In no way am I talented with musical instruments.

Gage rolled over to a wall, retrieved the cello-type thing that was lying there, and rolled back.

"You! Young lad in green! You have the Spirit Flute, do you not?" I nudged Link forwards, relieved that he was the one doing the duet thing and not me.

"Yeah...." Link rummaged around in his tunic and produced the flute Zelda had given him way back when.

"Excellent! Now then, shall we began?" Gage positioned his cello in front of himself and grasped the bow, looking at Link expectantly.

"Y-you mean now? Right now?" Link gulped.

"Wait a second," Zelda interjected. "Are you saying that my flute is a sacred Lokomo instrument? Why didn't I know anything about this?"

"Did Anjean not tell you about how she entrusted the Spirit Flute to your ancestors?" Gage arched a bushy eyebrow.

"No..."

"You should ask her sometime," Gage chuckled at some private joke, then cleared his throat. "Now, where were we? Ah yes! Restoring the maps' energy. Come now, my lad. I'll began by teaching you how to play." 

Link nervously walked forwards, clutching the flute tightly in both hands.

"Good luck Link!" Zelda smiled, coming over beside me. "You know," She murmured as Link and Gage began to practice. "It really should be me playing that flute."

"He'll do good!“ I reassured her, while crossing my fingers.

"Fine, fine. Now it goes me, you, me, you. In that order, so don't you mess up, you hear? and don't be confused by my part. Ready?" Gage played a few notes that echoed around the chamber and sound deep, rich, and...green. It reminded me of the forest; in my mind I could see trees and leaves and curling vines. Weird. Then Link joined in, and his flute blended with the cello perfectly.

It was over much too soon. I opened my eyes and saw Gage putting his cello back against the wall.

"Wow." Zelda breathed. "That was amazing, Link! You're a natural!" I nodded enthusiastically.

"Well done, m'boy. The tracks to the temple have been restored!" Gage pointed at the map I was still holding. Sure enough, more tracks were lighting up and glowing.

"Thank you so much Gage!" Zelda said. "Now we can get to the temple! Let's go, you guys!"

"Take care! The forest temple can be a very dangerous place!" Gage called after us.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\\\/\/\/\/\

"Are you okay Mia? You've been really quiet." Link asked, peering over at me. I was standing with my face to the wind, my hair blowing out behind me.

“Yeah, just thinking.” I told him. Just how dangerous was the forest temple going to be?

"Hey look! The Forest temple!" Zelda shouted as we neared a giant tree with thick, gnarly branches that reached high into the sky. At its base was what looked like the temple alright, and we were heading for the entrance. 

"Remember what Gage said," Zelda reminded. "Be careful, because the forest temple is dangerous."

"Aww, it's only the first temple." Link grinned confidently as we drove inside. "How bad can it be?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After walking for a while through the damp, eerily silent dungeon, we discovered a tall staircase that led to a platform at the very top of the tree. The wind whistled through the massive branches. Those branches blocked what would have been a fantastic view.   
All of the sudden, the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut, leaving us stranded.

"Okay. So, what no-" A loud, screeching roar interrupted me midway through my question, and the branches above our heads bent and swayed wildly in a sudden and powerful wind. And then, an enormous horned beetle with plates of armor covering the front of its body hovered over us and began to descend. The powerful downstrokes from its wings ripped the leaves from the branches and sent them swirling through the air. As the creature gave another screech, it landed on all four legs with a thud.

It was the creepiest, biggest thing I’ve ever seen.  
And then it charged, attempting to spear us on its horn. 

"Eeeek!" I grabbed Link's arm and pulled him out of the way. "What are you waiting for? Go get it with your sword!" 

"O-okay!" Link squeaked and ran towards the giant thing.  
I dodged a thick leg as it came inches in front of my face and actually sunk into the ground, throwing up splinters of wood.

"I can't get to it!" Link hacked at the beetle's leg and face. "The armor's too thick!" 

I rolled out of the way of yet another vicious horn thrust and came up a little behind it. Unlike the front, the beetle's back side was free of armor; I could see it's soft, purple insides pulsing behind a protective purple cloud of gas.

"Link!" I screeched. "I think its backside is its weakness!" 

"Okay!" Link screeched back.

"But be careful, it's surrounded by-" I wasn't looking where I was going and ran into something. "-Poisonous gas." I finished, finding myself lying on my back and staring up at the branch that had knocked me over. "Ow..." I rubbed my forehead and shook my head to get rid of the dizziness. 

Then I noticed something hanging on the branch above me. Getting up and standing on my tiptoes, I pulled it off of a small hook and saw that it was a pinwheel thing of some sort.

Wait...a pinwheel...

Excited, I blew into one end, causing a rush of wind to come out of the other end. Aha!

"Link! Use this!" I ran closer and tossed him the pinwheel thing. He sheathed his sword and caught it, striking a pose.

“Maybe you use it to get rid of the gas!”

"Gotcha!" Link dashed to the left, and behind the monster thing.

"Hurry Link?" I stuttered as the beetle reared up on its back legs and spat a bunch of spiky balls that exploded once they hit the floor. Then, Link sent a blast of wind whirling right at the purple cloud , causing the poison to break up and disintegrate into the air. Stunned, the insect wobbled slightly on shaky legs.

"HAAA!" Link threw the pinwheel thing aside and slashed with his sword at the creature's abdomen.

"Screeeeee!" The beetle shrieked in as Link sliced up its insides and I watched in disgust. Link drew back his sword and plunged it deep into the beetle, all the way up to the hilt. The monster 'screee-d" once more, it's limbs spasming violently before exploding, spewing guts and bits of armor all over the place.

"Gross! Oh eww, gross!” I complained wiping yellow gunk off of me as Zelda popped up out of nowhere. She had been hiding in her glowing ball for most of the time, I think.

"I never want to see something that disgusting ever again!" She exclaimed, her voice shaking. "Good job getting rid of it, Link."

"Thanks.." Link coughed tiredly and put his sword away, hanging the pinwheel thing on his belt. 

We all turned around as there was a loud rumble and a pillar-type thing rose out of the ground in the middle of the room. There were gears around the base of the pillar that began turning with a clank, and a huge green gem in the shape of an inverted triangle floated down from the sky. The moment it touched the pillar, a white light shone outwards from it, so bright I had to cover my eyes with my arm. The door to the stairs opened, and Link and I raced down them as the light got too bright to stand, Zelda following behind us.

"Look! Something's happening to the tracks!" She exclaimed as we ran up to the train. A blue, pure energy was growing and moving along the tracks, crackling and sparking as it traveled out of the temple.

Getting on the train, we followed the blue spark through the forest and back to the Tower of Spirits, where it surged ahead and crawled up the side of the tower, extending bolts of electricity up into the air. The part of the tower that was floating the closest to the base was drawn by the blue tendrils and landed back on the base with a muffled boom. 

Now only three parts were floating in the air!


	6. An Unexpected Encounter

"Anjean! Anjean! We restored the Forest Temple!" Zelda said happily as we pulled into the tower.

Anjean rolled over to us, holding another rail map.  
"Well done you three. Thanks to you, the Snow Rail Map has started glowing. New tracks have appeared!" 

She handed me the map and I swapped the new one for the old one.  
“Do we have to find another sage in order to get to the next temple?"

"Yes. A Lokomo by the name of Steem," Anjean answered me. "But be careful. The temple is often surrounded by mysterious and fierce snowstorms. I wish you luck!" 

She waved to us as Link started the train.

The moment we exited the tower, a large group of wild boars surrounded us. The train lurched from side to side as the pigs took turns ramming into us.

"Ahh! I don't think that the train can last much longer!" Link cried.

I tried holding out my hand to see if the pigs would get shocked like the spider back in the forest, but nothing happened. "Well that's helpful."

"Um, maybe we should stop at the castle and see if Alfonzo can help us with the train." Zelda suggested before shrinking into ball form again.

“Isn’t he too hurt to help us?” I asked, holding onto the railing for dear life.

"It's worth a try," Link gritted his teeth and pulled into the Castle Town station. The gang of pigs wandered off. No fun attacking a non-moving target, I guess.

Zelda circled around Link and I a few times, still in ball form.  
"How about Link and I go get Alfonzo, and you wait here?" She suggested.

“Okay!” I grinned, distracted by the food smells that were drifting from the market area. At least I wouldn't have to deal with any guards.

Wandering in and out of the shops and around different vendors selling various vendors selling various stuff, I waited for Link and Zelda and Alfonzo. Stopping to inspect some shiny earrings, I was hit by the most amazing smell, one that made my stomach growl. Eagerly pivoting on foot I tracked the smell to a food cart selling something called knish, which the sign described as basically hash browns. The little old lady minding the cart beamed up at me when she saw me eying the steaming potato cakes.

"One for five rupees." 

"Oh..." I sighed in disappointment. "I don't have any money." So much for a snack.

"Well..." The lady studied me with her hawk-like eyes. "You seem like a nice girl...so if you find my lost kitten, I'll give you two for free." 

I squinted at her. “Find your cat?”

"He ran off just moments ago. In that direction. And he usually likes to hide in trees."

Hunt for a cat, get something in return. This seemed like a typical enough side quest. 

“Okay," I told the knish lady, heading in the direction she had pointed. To my relief, I only had to walk to the end of the street before I spotted a huge tree at the centre of the square. Squinting at some of the lowest branches, I could just make out a small, quivering ball with fur that stuck in all different directions. Bingo. Skirting around anyone walking around, I trotted up to the tree and stood on tiptoe, reaching up to try to grab the kitten. "Here kitty, kitty." I said softly, trying not to scare it.

"Mrr." The kitted peered at me with huge, yellow eyes and didn't move an inch. Gritting my teeth, I strained upwards as far as I could. My fingers just brushed it's ear before it scooted backwards an inch. 

"Mrr."

"Come on, stupid-" All of the sudden I felt a presence behind me, and flinched as someone soundlessly reached up and plucked the kitten off the branch, gently lowering it to my level. The back of my neck prickled, and I turned, my eyes widening as I took in the long ponytail, the face-covering scarf, and the gauntlet.

Byrne.

A small trickle of fear turned my spine to ice, but I forced my voice to remain calm.  
“C-come to finish me off or something?” I started inching backwards till my back touched the rough bark of the tree. 

Byrne leaned against the trunk and casually glanced around at the hustling townsfolk, the colorful flower boxes, and the laughing kids who chased each other.

"If I had wanted to kill you," He gazed down at me with his dark eyes and held the quivering furball out. "You would have never left that field."

I edged closer and warily took the kitten from him, cradling it against my chest.  
"...So w-why didn’t you?“ I asked, and then wondered why I was trying to start a conversation with the guy who had attacked us. 

Byrne looked slightly troubled."Because you are not Lokomo, yet you seem to posses a natural ability to harness power from those around you. At least, from me."

“R-really?” I squeaked. So that's what happened.

"Tell me," Byrne left the trunk of the tree and moved closer, causing me to back away. "How did you do that?"

“I-I," I stuttered. "I don't know how it happened.”

"Perhaps you were meant to assist Cole and I instead of the spirits of good."

I hadn't realized I was squeezing the kitten until it sank its sharp claws into my arm. 

"If you were to join forces with us, we would be able to resurrect Malladus much sooner. He would wipe out all the foolish servants of the spirits and the world will be ours!" Byrne's eyes were glazed over at the prospect of ultimate power, and I used that opportunity to back away slowly.

“Um…n-no thank you.” I mumbled, feeling my hands start to shake. I stared at the ground, wondering if Byrne was going to finish me off or something now that I refused to join him. But when I looked back up a few seconds later, he was gone. I stood there for a minute, shivering. Then I hurried back to the knish lady and thrust the cat into her arms, glancing over my shoulder as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up again. Nothing was there that I could see.

"Why dearie, you're looking a bit pale! Are you alright?" I pushed my hair behind my ear and nodded, not looking at her. 

"Are these for me?" I asked, pointing at the two knishes on the counter.

"Yes, as I promised. Thank you so much for your help. Now you go on and scat!" 

"Thank you." I took a deep breath and smiled shakily, heading back towards the train station and trying to put that creepy encounter with Byrne and his growling voice out of my head.


	7. The Snow Temple

Upon nearing the train, I immediately noticed a new addition set between the engine and passenger car. A canon. And a big one at that. Yay! No more interference from pigs and other enemies! It looked like Alfonzo was putting some final touches on the cannon while Link sat in the shade cast by the train, looking bored and a bit overheated. Zelda was who knows where, probably in spirit-ball form.

"Look Mia, we have a canon now!" Link greeted me, not bothering to stand up. I decided not to mention anything about the Byrne incident. 

“Oh, cool!” I hopped off the platform and landed on the tracks beside the train, my feet crunching as I landed on the gravel.

"And...There you go, Link! With this canon, you should be able to break through rocks as well as kill enemies." Alfonzo turned, holding an oily rag in one hand and some sort of wrench-thing in the other. "Oh, hello Mia!"

"So this thing can smash rocks? How does it work?" I asked, pretty sure that Link wouldn't be able to use it while driving. With Zelda indisposed, that would leave…me?

"Oh, it's um, easy." Alfonzo said. "You just stand on this little platform-" I hoisted myself up on the platform attached to the back of the cannon and grasped the handles on either side. "-Aim where you want to go-" Using the handles, I swiveled the canon from side to side, aiming at imaginary pigs. Or chancellors. "And pull that lever along the side to fire!" Alfonzo finished.

“This is so cool!” I grinned as I grabbed the lever and used it to help lower me back down to the ground…...the level used to fire things. Realizing my mistake too late, I cringed and all three of us jumped as a cannonball was shot somewhere in the direction of the castle, landing somewhere with a muffled boom. Alfonzo and Link both looked over at me.

"Uhh,,. Oops!" I grinned weakly as smoke began to slowly spiral into the air where the cannonball had landed. "Time to go? Alfonzo? Are you coming with us?" Alfonzo hesitated as Link rushed to start the engine and I climbed back on the canon platform.

"As much as I would love too...I should probably go and explain everything."

"Oh," I nodded in understanding. “Okay. See you later!”

“See you!” He waved as Link hurriedly started the train.

As we kept driving through Hyrule, an icy rain began to fall, turning to flakes of snow as we drove closer to the snow realm. I shivered.  
"MIA! UP AHEAD! ROCKS!" Zelda's voice came out of nowhere and I nearly jumped out of my rapidly freezing skin. I had been wondering where she was! 

“O-oh! Sorry! I guess I was daydreaming.” I stood up and pointed the cannon at a large boulder inconveniently sitting in the middle of the tracks. Two cannonballs later, the rock was blasted to pebbles and according to the map, we had officially entered the Snow Realm. Which would explain all the snow, I guess. My teeth chattered and I hugged my knees to my chest. "Are we there yet?" I shivered.

"You're the one with the map," Zelda spoke again.

"Oh yeah," I pulled it out from a convenient little spot I had discovered between the lever and the base of the canon. "Do you see a tunnel up ahead? Past that is the Snow Sanctuary.” 

"The tunnel with the huge, locked gate in front of it?" Link asked.

I stood up and looked around the side of the train at a thick, iron gate blocking the entrance. “Come on, we can totally take it down!” 

"Mia, maybe we should go talk to someone around here to see if anyone can open that gate. It's probably locked for a reason." Link said, turning the train to the right and onto a track that led away from the door.

"You're probably right..." I lifted my hand off the cannon ball lever, slightly disappointed. "It's just that...I need to practice firing this thing for when we run into Cole again.”

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get plenty of practice shooting more pigs or rock or something." Zelda popped up and sat on the roof of the passenger car. Her glowy, see-through hair floated in the wind. I wondered if she felt the cold. 

Link blew the train whistle and shifted gears; the train began to slow down.  
"Hey Mia, what's the name of this place?" He jumped down from the train and landed waist-deep in a pile of snow. I checked the map and shoved it back underneath the canon before jumping down and landing with the same results as Link.

"Anouki village. I think. " I heaved myself out of the snow and onto a path that led towards the village. Melting ice slid into my shoes (shoes which I just now noticed appeared to be the same kind of boots Link wore) and I shuddered. Link struggled free of the persistent snow bank and I wrapped my arms around myself. "Stupid, freezing snow realm," I muttered, brushing snowflakes out of my hair.

"You don't like snow much, do you?" Link matched his steps with mine as I shook my head and hustled towards the nearest igloo-like house, ducking inside.

"AHHH!" I lifted my arm to cover my eyes.

"AHHH!" An Anouki wearing nothing but a towel replied. "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?"

"I'M JUST LOOKING FOR THE MAYOR OR WHATEVER!"

"WELL I'M NOT THE HONCHO! HONCHO'S HOUSE IS THE FANCY PURPLE ONE ON THE HIGHEST PART OF THE VILLAGE!"

"THANK YOU!" I attempted to back out of the doorway but bumped into a table or something. A vase fell on the floor with a cringe-worthy crash. 'WHY ARE WE YELLING?"

"BECAUSE YOU ARE IN MY HOUSE!"

"YOU SHOULD PROBABLY CLOSE THE DOOR NEXT TIME!" I turned and sprinted out the doorway, ramming into Link in my haste to get away. Anouki in a towel. That image will haunt me.

"Mia?" Link squeaked, stumbling backwards and nearly falling.

"My eyes..." I moaned, and started stumbling towards the purple house that hopefully belonged to the honcho. “That was so scary!” 

A few Anoukis looked curiously at us and I shuddered.

"Wait!" I screeched to a halt in front of the entrance (also door-less). "You go first! Just in case!" 

“Just in case what?” Link blinked.

“Just go!” 

"Okay," He cautiously wandered inside and I braced myself for a shriek of horror or something. Not quite wanting to go inside, even though Link hadn't come out screaming, I stood shivering, the tips of my hair freezing into little icicles.

"Aw," I finally muttered and stalked inside just in time to hear an important-looking Anouki finish saying to Link,

"...help with patrol groups." They both turned as I skittered around them and dropped on the floor in front of a crackling fire. "Who are you?" The honcho guy asked as melting snow slid off my hair and made puddles on his floor.

"Me? I'm just Mia." I sighed happily in the warmth of the fire. 

"She's with me." Link said.

"So I guess ya want the key to the Snow Sanctuary too, huh guy? Er-girl."

“Yes please!"

"Well, as I just finished telling Link-abou here, I may have forgotten where I put it, but I might be able to remember if ya help Link-abou organize my village into patrol groups." Honcho rapidly added.

“What? Really? I don’t know how to organize things!” I said worriedly.

"How else are we going to get that key?" Zelda asked me, her voice sounding slightly echoey, which it did whenever she spoke without being visible. I think I was finally getting used to her speaking out of thin air, because I didn’t really get startled that time.

"Hang on a second," I said. “I have an idea!”

“What kind of idea?” Honcho asked.

“How about," I pushed some hair out of my eyes, “You give the key to Link, and he goes to the Snow Sanctuary while I stay here and do the whole patrol thing. That way, you'll get your patrols and we'll not waste any more time!”

"I guess that could work..." Honcho hesitated, then disappeared into the back of his house and came back with a key. He gave it to Link, and we all walked outside.

"Bye Mia!" Link waved and dashed back to the train, his boots throwing clumps of snow up behind him.

"Good luck! The map's underneath the canon!" I called, snuggling into the soft, plushy material on the inside of the jacket the Honcho had given me.

"Ya'd best get started," Honcho told me. "We Anouki are very picky, so it might take a while for ya to find good matches for everybody."

“O-okay. I’ll try my best!”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\/\/\

"What? Are ya done already?" Honcho looked up from a pot he was stirring as I walked through the doorway. Why didn't anyone close their doors around here? 

“Yup!" I handed him a piece of paper I had borrowed from another Anouki and held my breath as he looked my choices over briefly.

“These look about right.” 

“Oh good!” I said happily, and recalled the confusing conversations I had had with each picky Anouki. “It was kind of hard to get them paired together.”

“I can imagine.” Honcho chuckled. I heard a train whistle, and perked up.

“Oh! I think Link is back! Thanks for everything!”

I waved to him and jogged out of his house and down to the train station, where Link was already waiting. “How did it go?” I asked, hopping up on the canon platform.

“Good!" Zelda said. “The tracks to the temple are finally back!”

“Steem wasn’t in a very friendly mood though.” Link turned briefly to hand me the map as we started driving along the tracks.

"That must have been fun," I chuckled. "See? Nobody like the cold. Turn left, then right."

"Um...okay..." Link looked a little worried as the wind started blowing a little harder and I raised my voice above the sound of swirling snowflakes.

"Hmm...that's weird." I rubbed my eyes. "Haven't we passed that clump of trees before?"

"I can barely tell in this storm!" Link shouted, holding onto his hat. The wind whipped through my hair and snatched Honcho's jacket right out of my lap.

"What did Steem say about the Snow Temple? That it's surrounded by magical blizzards or something?" Zelda asked, struggling to keep up with us in the wind.

"Oh g-g-great! It's the Lost Woods all over again!" I shivered.

"Can you use your magic power to find the right path?" Link asked me, his eyes narrowed against the flying chips of ice.

"Um….I dunno!" I closed my eyes and felt for an energy, but came up with nothing. Not that I really knew what I was doing, anyways. 

"Anything?" Zelda asked after a while. I opened my eyes and tried shooting electricity out of my hand. Nothing.

"Guys? Maybe we should see if someone around here can help us."

Link must have picked up on the nervousness in my voice. "What's wrong?" He asked as he turned the train around.

"I can’t..sense anything. I think my power is gone." Maybe Byrne took it after all.

"...Oh." We were all silent as Link successfully maneuvered back out of the blizzard and onto the tracks heading parallel to where the temple should be.  
We didn't have to go far.

"OH MY GOSH! It's the Spirit Train!" Someone shouted as we breezed by them.

"What!" Link pulled the brake and the train screeched to a halt with a very unpleasant noise. We slowly backed up, stopping beside a blue-haired guy holding a camera.  
"Hello...we're trying to get to the Snow Temple, but there seems to be a blizzard blocking the way. Do...you have any suggestions?" I asked.

"OH EM GEE! You stopped!"

I flinched a little in surprise at his loud voice.

"When I first saw you, I was all like, 'HOLY COW, it's THE Spirit Train!" The guy stopped whipping his head back and forth excitedly to focus on Link. "Say, you're that guy who just became an engineer. Link, was it?"

Link nodded slowly. 

"I'm Ferrus. When it comes to trains, I'm kind of an expert. You know, everyone else is too spooked to take their trains anywhere right now. You just GOTTA tell me where you're headed!"

"Well, we were trying to get to the Snow Temp-"

"REALLY?" Ferrus gasped, interrupting Link yet again. "You're heading to the Snow Temple? How convenient for you, I have an old map of the tracks around that area. Here, you can have it!"

“T-thanks…?” I inched towards him to grab the map.

"Wait! Can I PLEEEEASE take your picture?"

"Our picture?" Link asked.

"Yeah, your picture! It's not everyday I see someone come by riding on THE SPIRIT TRAIN!"

"Um, okay..."

"Alright then! Say: 'Locomotive'!" Ferrus pressed the shutter button, and the camera clicked, the flash intensified by the snow.

"Ow..." Link rubbed his eyes.

"See you SOON!" Ferrus said as we prepared to take off.

"What? Why?" I blinked in alarm.

"So I can give you these PICTURES when they DEVELOP!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"That guy was pretty excited!” I remarked as we finally pulled into the Snow Temple. “At least he gave us a map!”

"I really hope we don't run into him again." Zelda sighed.

Link just seemed to find the whole thing pretty funny and just smiled a bit as he walked to the front door and threw it open.

"Augh!" A combined stream of ice and fire swirled towards him and he barely managed to slam the door on time. The skin on his fingers appeared both slightly singed and frozen.

"What was that?" Zelda gasped.

“Maybe the boss," I guessed, cautiously opening the door a crack. What I saw looked far from menacing. "Aww, it's cute!" Opening the door wider, I walked to the center of the room where a small, grey, fox-like creature sat, it's thick fluffy tail curled over its feet.

"No! Don't!" Link squeaked as I crouched down to pet its soft fur. It looked up at me curiously and licked my finger with a sandpaper tongue.

"I don't think this thing is the boss, Link. Look how cute it is!" Link stepped a few feet into the room. Immediately, the animal thing hissed and started to expand, growing larger and larger like a balloon. "Aah!" I scrambled away as it spewed lava and ice at Link, who ran out the door again. As soon as Link left, the thing deflated and calmly walked back over to me, rubbing its head against my knee, begging to be petted.

"Maybe it doesn't like Link because he has a sword," Zelda said from the doorway, her voice shaking a bit.

"Aww, do we really have to kill it?" I asked sadly.

"Of course! A boss is a boss!" Zelda said.

"Aww..." I whined, and turned away, not wanting to watch as Link quickly advanced on it with his sword before it could spit any more fire or ice. 

When it was all over, I said sadly walked over to where Zelda and Link were standing together in front of the pillar rising through the middle of the floor. Another inverted triangle, white this time, materialized and floated down to rest on the top of the pillar.

“That didn’t seem like much of a boss…” I grumbled.

“Hey, I didn't even have to use this." Link picked a wooden weapon off the floor. 

I perked up and announced, "You got a boomerang!"

"Do you realize that we're halfway done now?" Zelda exclaimed excitedly. "There's only two tower pieces left!"

"...Yeah..." Link said.

I glanced curiously at him as we walked back to the temple entrance and boarded the train. Maybe he didn’t like having to kill such a cute creature either.   
When we emerged into the sunlight again the blizzard seemed to have disappeared and we could see all the way to the Tower of Spirits, where a blue light flashed up the sides and another piece was drawn back to its proper place. 

"I hope the next realm isn't so frosty!" Zelda said to me as we started the long journey back towards the tower and towards Anjean. 

"So you can feel the cold! I was wondering about that, you know. "


	8. The Ocean Temple

After we stopped by the tower to get the next re-energized rail map from Anjean, we headed off towards the next realm, the ocean realm! I was very happy that we would be going somewhere warmer after all that snow!   
Chugging our way down the tracks, when we got to the line that separated the neutral area that surrounded the tower from the ocean realm, we found that the bridge connecting the two areas was totaled; planks of wood floating in the water and piled everywhere, obscuring the tracks. I jumped out before the train came to a complete stop and Zelda and I went over to the bridge to get a closer look. 

"That looks...pretty bad," Link remarked, walking over to join us.

"At least we're stuck here instead of in the Snow Realm!” I smiled a bit.

"Well if you need to get across that bridge, you're going to have to go back to the Snow Realm..." Somebody said from behind us.

"What! There is no way we're going back to the-" I turned, hands on hips and ready for an argument, but stopped ranting when I saw who stood before me. "It’s….! It's Linebeck!" I blinked in surprise.

"Mia? Do you know him?" Link was staring at Linebeck curiously. 

"He's only like, the most arrogant Zelda character ever!"

“What?" Link and Linebeck and Zelda all said at the same time.

"Uh...I mean, I'm totally your biggest fan!" I stammered and turned to Linebeck. "Can I have your autograph?"

Linebeck smirked in that trademark way of his. "Hey, it's nice to finally meet a fan! I think I have a picture of myself I can give you among the many back at my house. I'll go get it." Linebeck sauntered back the way he had come and disappeared into his small building beside the tracks. I turned to Link, who was staring in the direction Linebeck had gone.

"Oh. My. Gosh. I just spoke to Linebeck!" Zelda and Link were both silent. “I mean, not that it’s not cool to be talking and travelling with you guys,” I said hurriedly. “It’s just that… Linebeck! I never expected to see him in this game after the last one!”

“Game?” Link sounded confused. 

At that moment, Linebeck returned with a picture of himself and a pen.  
"Let's see...to my number one fan...?"

"Mia." I provided.

"Mia. There you go." Linebeck signed his name with a flourish and handed the picture to me. I folded the paper into a square and pushed it deep into my pocket.

“Excuse me Linebeck but we were wondering…” Link cocked his head as Zelda whispered something in his ear. "Well, we need to get this bridge fixed."

"Do I look like I fix bridges?" Linebeck folded his arms. “If you want to get across, you'll have to go to the bridge worker's house in the Snow Realm and bring him back with you." 

“What? I thought we were done with the snow!” I said sadly. 

“I guess not.” Zelda grumbled as we all walked reluctantly back to the train.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

On our way back from getting the Bridge Worker (which was a very long journey filled with a lot more snow than I thought was necessary) we were flagged down by none other than Ferrus. When we stopped to see what he wanted, it was the picture that he had taken of us earlier. It was done developing! Link tucked it up on the dashboard where we could all see it. It was a good picture!  
After saying goodbye to Ferrus we made our way back to Linebeck's house and the broken bridge.

"Yeah, I can fix it," The Bridge Worker inspected the pile of twisted wood.

“Yay!” I said.

"Great!" Linebeck exclaimed.

"So, combined with the work I did on your house a few weeks ago, I think 5000 rupees should cover the cost nicely." If Linebeck had been drinking something, he would have done a spit-take.

"Wh-what?" He spluttered, turning white. 

"Unless, of course you don't need this bridge fixed," The Bridge Worker suggested. 

Linebeck was silent for a moment. Then he brightened, his color returning to normal.  
"Well, lucky for me, these two kids have kindly agreed to pay the bill, haven't you kids? Mia and Green Kid?"

"What? Why would we do something like that?" Link gasped.

"Well! I'm glad this bit of unpleasantness is settled. If you need me I'll be in my house. Bye!" And with that, Linebeck made a hasty retreat, dashing away and slamming the door of his house behind him.

"Meh, I don't really care who pays me as long as I get paid," The Bridge Worker lifted a large and scary-looking mallet thing onto his shoulder and walked over to the bridge, leaving the three of us in stunned silence.

“I-I can’t believe he just did that…” I said.

"That lousy, cheap..." Zelda looked mad enough to punch someone.

"5000 rupees? How are we going to come up with that?" Link looked horrified.

We all jumped as Linebeck's front door flew open, and Linebeck came back out.

“What do you want now?” Zelda demanded.

“What do you want now?” I demanded for her, since Linebeck couldn’t see or hear her.

”Calm down. I only wanted to let you know that I have this great idea of where you can get the money. “ Linebeck sighed. I guess he felt bad for pinning such a price on us! “Before he died, my grandfather left me a letter with a map leading to a rare regal ring that is buried somewhere around this station. From what I hear, this regal ring is worth 8000 rupees at least! So if you can follow these instructions and find the ring, we'll all be happier, see?" Linebeck thrust a brown, crinkled envelope at me before I could protest.

"But-"

"Never mind that! Good luck!" Linebeck turned around and scurried back to his house, slamming the door behind us again.

"Why…. why would he make US do this?” Link wondered.

“Let's just find this ring and get out of here." I sighed, grabbing a shovel that was leaning against the side of the house and handing it to Link. Then I unfolded the ancient-looking paper and blew a blanket of dust off of it. Link peered at the map over my shoulder.

"Hey! I think that 'X' is right behind Linebeck's house!" He pointed at the big, red 'X' marked on the map.

"...Well, what do you know. You're right, Link." I tossed the map over my shoulder as Link ran over to the spot that supposedly held a regal ring and started throwing shovelfuls of dirt over his shoulder. 

“Why couldn’t have Linebeck done that himself?” Zelda wondered, frowning. 

"Guys!" Link slowed his frenzied shoveling and emerged from a shallow hole with a small box in his hand. "I think I found it!"

“Yay!" I exclaimed, following after his dirt-coated form as he threw open the door and walked right into Linebeck's house.

"There. You have your ring." Link said, dumping the contents of the box on the counter.

"Hey, good job there, squirt! I didn't think you'd actually find it!" 

“It was right outside your house you know. Did you even look at the map?” 

Linebeck ignored me and picked up the jewel encrusted ring, holding it up to catch the light streaming through the doorway. "This thing is definitely worth 8000 rupees!"

"Oh really?" We all turned as the Bridge Worker sauntered up to us and snatched the ring out of Linebeck's fingers. "Could have fooled me. Well enjoy your bridge. Out." We watched him go in silence.

"I don't know how he's going to get anywhere without a train," I said. Linebeck had bigger problems.

"That ring was almost TWICE as much as I owed!!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

We found a note at the Ocean Sanctuary.  
"I've gone to visit my sky friends at Papuchia Village -Carben."

"Why do all these Lokomos have train-related names?" I asked, wondering why I hadn't noticed this before. 

"Oh...they do, don't they?" Zelda floated in the air above our heads as the train came to a stop beside Papuchia Village, her hair blowing in the soft sea breeze. "That is kind of strange."

"Man, I wish we could go swimming," Link sighed longingly. A few random villagers walked around, carrying baskets of fish and paying us little attention.

I glanced at him. "Who says we can't?"

Link stared up at me very seriously, then suddenly took off towards the town's small beach. "Race ya!"

I grinned and chased after him down to the surf, gasping in surprise as a whitecap splashed me, totally soaking me from the knees down. Link's hat and boots and tunic were scattered on the sand; I kicked off my own boots, rolled up my pants to my knees and tied my shirt up before diving into the foamy waves after Link. The water felt cool, my hair floated around me, and the salt stung as I opened my eyes, looking around for Link. A hand grabbed my ankle underwater and I spat out half of my air, even though I should have expected something like that. I whirled around to see Link swimming away, bubbles of laughter streaming behind him.

"I'm so going to get you for that!" I swam after him, my words garbled. Streams of sunlight sliced down through water, illuminating colorful bunches of pink and yellow corals on the seabed. It was incredibly pretty, I had to admit. Schools of fish surrounded me, nibbling softly on my toes and I caught up to Link, poking him in the side. He jerked backwards and then swam upwards, the rest of his air bubbling out all around him. Laughing silently, I kicked my way up to the surface and treaded water while Link recovered.

I grinned as he gasped, his blonde hair plastered to his face.

"Did you see the black fish?" Link finally said.

"Black fish? No. Where?" I spun in circles, but the way the sun was glinting off the waves made it impossible to see anything in the water.

"I'll show you. Come on!" Taking a deep breath of air, Link sunk below the surface. I followed him and he took my arm, leading me down to the clusters of coral I had seen earlier. There we hovered in one spot, trying not to move as three ink black fish swam past us, little white splotches on their wiggling fins.

"That's so cool!” I laughed as we broke above the waves. 

“I know!” Link laughed too.

I flipped over and floated on my back, watching seagulls soaring on updrafts and then beating their wings when they couldn't find one. Link mimicked my position and we floated peacefully side by side on the gentle waves. Until Zelda appeared over us.

"How long are we going to hang around here? I found Carben, and he's waiting in the train.” 

"Nice work, Zelda!" Link started swimming back to the beach. I followed him and grabbed my boots off of the sand before walking back to the train, my clothes feeling heavy and sticking to my skin very annoyingly.

“Maybe that wasn’t the best idea…” I mused.

“We’ll dry off quickly in the sun!” Link said. 

"Carben wants us to take him back to the Ocean Sanctuary to restore the map, so let's get going." Zelda announced, then floated through the wall of the passenger car where a Lokomo supposedly waited.

Link and I climbed back onto the train, and we started travelling back towards the sanctuary…..

"PIRATES!" Zelda shrieked. I jerked awake from my little nap. Hey, it was a long way back to the sanctuary.

"What? Where?" I wobbled to my feet and swiveled the cannon towards the land on our left.

"ON YOUR RIGHT!" Zelda shrieked again as a cannon ball splashed into the water very near us. I whipped the cannon around and found myself aiming at a wicked-looking pirate ship swarming with creatures and sailing straight at us. 

“O-oh my gosh!”

"Mia, we have to guard Carben!" Link said as the train stopped to a screech on the tracks. "You stay here and try to destroy their ships! I'll go inside and fight off any pirates that manage to get inside!" He dropped to the ground and cautiously stepped over the rails until he got to the passenger car.

"Okay...I guess...I'll just be out here then," I said, my voice shaking a bit as I fired at the first ship. My aim must be getting better, because the cannon ball flew through the air and smashed through the deck. My next shot tore a massive hole in the hull.   
"Yeah! Eat lead!" I aimed at the next ship as pirates began leaping off the sinking one, yelling curses and firing arrows came too close for comfort. "Ha! Missed."   
The three remaining ships began to turn parallel to the Spirit Train, turning their canons in our direction. But all they got by turning was more cannon shot smashing into their now exposed sides. "Yes!" I fist pumped as all three ships went down, sending waves pulsing outwards in all directions. “I’m totally the best.” 

"Mia!" I heard a faint cry and turned.

"What?"

"Mia!" Zelda cried again.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" I hopped down to the tracks, taking care to not get my foot caught as I walked over to the passenger car, throwing open the door. I froze. Standing at the far end of the car was a huge, hulking troll/pirate thing wielding a massive spiked club. "Oh..."

"...my gosh." Link and I finished together. The monster roared and started to slowly advance towards the white-haired Lokomo cowering behind Link.

"Don't let them get me!" Carben whimpered.

"Yeah...you can...do it Link." I said weakly as Link bravely charged to meet the pirate, his boots crunching on the glass from the windows, which all appeared to be broken. Link rolled out of the way of a vicious club strike, causing the club to become imbedded into the floor. The monster grunted, the gold pirate necklace around its neck swaying as it attempted to pull its weapon out of the floor boards. It appeared to be very stuck. Taking advantage of the pirates' unfortunate dilemma, Link unleashed a flurry of salvage chops on its arms and legs and finally, its chest. The pirate roared and I winced as Link stuck his sword deep into its chest. Moments later, the pirate disintegrated into the familiar purple cloud that I saw when the temple bosses had been defeated. 

"Oh, you saved me. You brave lad." Carben stopped cowering in the corner and pulled a normal flute out of nowhere. "I guess we better perform before something else happens, eh? You can drop me off later and continue straight to the Ocean Temple afterwards."

"O...okay..." Link huffed. His face was streaked with sweat. "But...I'm...kind of...out of breath right now..."

"I'll do it!" I climbed into the car.

"What? No!" Zelda protested as Link handed the flute to me.

"Why not, Zelda? You want to get to the temple, don't you?"

"Yes, but… do you even know how to play?”

"Well no, but I could probably figure it out." I lifted the flute to my mouth, blowing into it and playing a few practice notes. "Hey, this isn't so hard. I don't know what you're so worried about," I said to Zelda.

"Okay, I'll play your part first. When you've learned it, let me know and then we will began."

I waited for him to play his part, and then played along the best I could. Sure I got a bunch of the notes wrong, but it still sounded okay. Sort of. Carben frowned the whole time, but continued playing, as did I. When I finally got through the whole song, and we were finished, I handed the flute back to Link and reached under the seat.

“It worked!” I said, pulling out the map and displaying the glowing tracks.

"..How in the world did that work? That was horrible!" Zelda exclaimed. 

"For a complete amateur, you were alright," Carben said reluctantly.

“Thanks!” I beamed. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Mind you," Carben shouted up at us as we dropped him off at the sanctuary a few minutes later. "The entrance to the temple is underwater, but the boss' lair is at the very top of that large pillar poking out of the water over there." We looked out towards the ocean, and the pillar standing up way out in the water.

Link frowned. "How are we going to drive underwater?"

"Or breathe. Isn't that kind of impossible?" I asked doubtfully.

"Why do you doubt the Spirits' power?" Carben glared at me.

“S-sorry!” I squeaked.

Carben was silent as we headed towards the ocean, and when I turned back, I could still see him sitting there, watching us.

"Hey, isn't that the entrance?" Zelda pointed at a stone fish, half-submerged in the water near the shore. It's mouth was open, the tracks ahead of us disappearing into the depths. Link slowed down and we all stared at the darkness and into the water.

"I'm kind of doubting the Spirits' power right now," Link said. Secretly, I was too.

"The tracks will protect us," Zelda said, but didn’t sound so sure. "That's what Carben said."

“I hope he’s right.” I looked over the water surrounding us. The pillar that Carben had pointed out caught my eye. I squinted, and could just barely make out steps spiraling upwards, leading straight from the water. “Or we could just…swim over there?"

"You seriously plan to swim?" Zelda said incredulously.

"It doesn't look that far!" 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was a lot further away than it looked. By the time I hauled myself, dripping, onto the grey stone steps, I was panting slightly.

"Wow. Great idea, Mia." Zelda said, eying my sopping clothes.

"Second swim of the day!" I said, wringing out my hair. “Are you okay?” I said to Link, who had just joined us.

"Fine," Link said. "My arm is sore from holding my sword above the water, though."

“Why were you doing that?” I asked.

“So it wouldn’t rust!”

"How is Link going to defeat the boss with one good arm?" Zelda sighed, mostly to herself.

We started to climb the stairs and finally reached the top where we were greeted by...a large pool of pinkish-purple goo. A warm, putrid stench filled the air.  
I gave into temptation and picked up a rock lying on the ground.

"No! Don't!" Zelda cried as I heaved the rock into the pool. It landed with a plop and slowly sunk under with a wet, sucking sound.

The ground began to rumble ominously, as did the clouds. With very little warning, something shot upwards out of the pool, landing back down again with a splash that sprayed gunk all over the place, coating the ground.

"Oops.. Sorry." 

“That was not very smart!" Zelda said as, hidden by a layer of slime, the creature let out a long roar. Link and I backed up, our bare feet squishing disgustingly as four shapes rose out of the pool. They waved menacingly and with a jolt of horror, I realized that they were spike-covered tentacles. I still couldn't see the thing in the middle though, through all that slime.

Link drew his sword. 

“Get it Link!" I yelled. And then a thick, rubbery tentacle wrapped around my ankle and scooped me into the air.

"Mia!" Link's eyes went wide and he stood frozen, staring up at me, I think. It was kind of hard to tell from this height. The tentacle tightened its grip and whipped me around so I was hanging upside down. Sharp barbs cut into my skin.

"Link! Behind...you!" I warned, holding onto the monster appendage for dear life. If I fell from this height, the goo on the ground would no longer be just pink and purple, but coloured with Mia-splats too. Link turned and slashed at the tentacle with a bunch of chopping motions, and that's when the tentacle holding me decided to start waving back and forth, causing the blood to rush to my head. 

"Ahh!" I grimaced as blood began to trickle down my leg from the puncture wounds. Distracted by my cry, Link turned, and the tentacle he had been hacking at grabbed him around the waist and hauled him up into the sky. Link gasped as he felt the sting of spikes and dropped his sword; it clattered down to the ground far below. My head began to spin and the last thing I saw before blacking out was a mouthful of teeth emerge from the slime pit below.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Link pulled and strained against the sharp tentacle, the thorns on it cutting his hands. He looked over at Mia, who was hanging upside down, her eyes shut, her face white, and struggled harder.

"Ahh!" He cried as he was squeezed harder and curled inwards towards the gaping jaws that had just rising out of the goo. An enormous yellow eye blinked up at him, and tears of fear, pain, and defeat all in one made trails through the dust and slime on Link's face.

"Link!" Zelda flew up to him, for the first time in all the boss fights. "Listen to me! It's eye is the only place not covered by spikes! Can't you do anything about it?"

Link gasped for breath. "I dropped my sword!”

"Well, don't just sit there! Do something!"

Link grasped seemingly in vain at the arm, painfully squeezing his ribs. As he did, a long, sharp spike broke off. He almost dropped it, but gritted his teeth and held it tightly in his bleeding hand. A desperate plan took place in his head. He waited until he and Mia were lowered closer and closer to the reeking pool and those needle-sharp teeth. When he was too scared to wait any longer, Link drew back his arm and threw the spike straight into the eye like a spear. The creature roared and tossed Link and Mia into the air. 

Link rolled when he hit the ground and, fighting nausea, took up his sword and slashed at the enormous eyeball with all his remaining strength. The monster shrieked, bloodcurdling screams that made Link's spine turn to ice. Blood slid down the handle of his blade and made it slippery. Link's hands fumbled as he lifted his sword, pointing downwards, into the air and, with Zelda yelling encouragement the whole time, brought it down in a killing blow.


	9. Byrne and the Fire Temple

This time when I woke up I was lying on the ground and instead of an old guy, Link and Zelda were staring down at me.

"Mia!" Link looked relieved when my eyes blinked open. "See? I told you she wasn't dead," He said to Zelda, his complexion turning from white, back to normal.  
I coughed. "It only got me by my ankle."

"Well, you also were dropped on your head." Zelda added. I felt the back of my head and winced when I found a bump.

"That would explain the dent." I blinked, noticing for the first time that we were back at the Tower of Spirits. Without the Spirit Train. "Did you bring us back somehow, Anjean?" I asked the sage, who was sitting quietly off to the side. She nodded, but offered no further info, so Zelda launched into an explanation.

"Link fainted after he killed the monster, so I flew really fast to the tower to tell Anjean and she warped you guys back here."

"I didn't faint!" Link protested, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wow. I'm impressed! Thank you Zelda!" I pushed myself up and wincing as my muscles seized. The slime from the monster earlier had dried on my skin and clothes, and I didn't even want to think about the state my hair was probably in at the moment.

Noticing me, Link peered down at his clothes which were variously stained with monster goo, sea salt, and blood.

"We can't possibly go to the next temple tonight." Zelda said.

“You are right, seeing as it’s nearly dark, m'dear." Anjean said.

"Wait a minute, you said you were using all your power to keep Malladus locked up," Link said slowly. "How did you warp us back here?"

Anjean gestured at the three glowing maps and one glow-less on hanging on the wall. "Each temple you've restored has brought a piece of the tower back, as you know. As the energy returns, little by little, so does my strength. You have done well to come this far." 

I cringed as Link picked a chunk of something rubbery-looking out of his hair. ”Is there a shower around here?” I asked.

"Shower?" Anjean, Link, and Zelda all asked at the same time.

"I don't know what you mean by ‘’shower’, but there is a natural hot spring a little ways away from the tower." Anjean offered, pointing at one of the four doors that led to the four realms.

Actually...I didn't really mind the idea of hot springs.

"I'll come with you guys." Zelda announced.

Actually, I would like you to remain here, m'dear." Anjean said to Zelda once a stack of clean clothes identical to the ones Link and I were wearing, had materialized in her hands along with a bar of soap, which I took gratefully. "There are things we need to discuss."

"But-" Zelda started to protest, then fell silent when Anjean fixed her with a stern stare. "Okay.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Oh gosh," I murmured upon stepping out into the clear night air. Beyond the evil swirly cloud that overlaid the tower, millions of stars were hanging in the midnight blue sky, glittering like little diamonds. Link's eyes flickered upwards fleetingly.

"Don't you have stars in your world?" He asked as we trudged towards the hot spring.

"Yeah, but not like this. Where I come from, stars have pretty much become a distant memory due to light pollution."

“...Oh. Is there anything good about your world?" Link held a branch out of my way as we moved through the circle of trees that enclosed the pretty little pool.

"Not really." I thought for a minute. "Well, there is indoor plumbing and electricity," I slipped off my boots and wading into the wonderfully warm water with all my clothes on. "And literature, movies, and music." I hung the clean clothes Anjean had been so kind to provide us with on a tree branch hanging over the water.

"Movies?" Link asked, leaving his boots beside mine. Steam spiraled all around us, little tendrils playing with the wisps of hair on the back of my neck. A sweet, piney smell hovered in the air as I waded in up to my neck and quickly shed my disgustingly stiff clothes, removing the bar of soap from my jeans pocket.

"They're like moving pictures that tell a story. With sound and colour and stuff." I tried to explain, breaking the soap into two pieces and tossing half to him.

"That sounds like Niko's presentations. Except much more well done." He said. "What else?"

I leaned back and started trying to clean my hair of slime. "There's this really cool park a little ways away from my house. It's filled with these gorgeous trees that are on either side of the path, and in the spring, when there are still flowers blooming, the air smells like apples. And in the distance, you can see the mountains. And if you listen really closely, you can sometimes hear eagles or hawks, which are big birds." I decided to stop rambling and start concentrating on getting my hair clean.

"I wish I could see your world." Link sighed. "Just once."

"Yeah, well, I probably just made it sound a lot better than it actually is." A thin layer of slime peeled off my lower arm. "Eww!"

"Gross!" Link agreed. I noticed small traces of red in the cloudy water around his chest.

"Hey...are you hurt?" I demanded, noticing his one arm wrapped around his chest.

"Not really...it's just a scratch." He mumbled as more blood trickled into the water. 

“O-oh my gosh!” I squeaked. “Why didn't you tell someone?"

Link winced. "Mia, really, it's okay.”

"No, it's not. It could get infected or something." I argued. “You have to let me wrap that up!”

After ducking behind a rock to put on Anjean’s clothes (which were a perfect fit!) I was kneeling over Link and trying not to throw up as I probed along his gash wound with my fingers. A thin sheen of sweat covered Link's bare torso as he lay propped up against the boulder which I had gotten dressed behind. He looked like he was in a lot of pain.

"I-I need you to stay still, okay?" I breathed. I could see a broken-off piece of spike deep in there, green liquid seeping out of it and mingling with the blood.  
How Zelda and I didn't notice this before was beyond me.  
Link's breathing quickened, and he tensed in anticipation of pain.

"No, relax." I looked up at him and he looked back, his eyes wide. Carefully extending my thumb and forefinger, I grasped the sticky end of the thorn. Link squeezed his eyes shut as I wiggled the spike tip loose and struggled to pull it out, my fingers becoming slippery with warm blood. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and extracted the thick, oozing thing, stowing it in my pocket.

"You should probably wash it again tomorrow, just to keep it clean. " I stood up, holding out both of my hands. Link took them and hauled himself up. For the first time since getting out of the hot springs, I felt the chill of the night air through my thin sweater. "You must be freezing without your tunic!" I exclaimed. 

"A little," He admitted, and picked up the dry shirt Anjean had given him as I gathered up both of our wet clothes and hung them on various tree branches to let them dry overnight. "Thank you for getting that spike out of there."

"Don't mention it." I replied, still feeling a little sick as we walked back towards the tower in the dark, the only light illuminating our path coming from the stars.  
"What took you so long?" Zelda demanded as we slipped in between the giant doors of the tower. She was hovering beside the Spirit Train which seemed to have been warped as well. If Anjean looked tired before, she looked near to fainting now.

"Nothing." Link said. Zelda looked at him.

“Are you okay Link?" She demanded. "And what's that on your chest?”

Anjean wheeled over on her wheeled chair and frowned at Link's chest wound, which was beginning to scab over.

"Hmm. It doesn't look fatal. Was that in there?" She pointed at the spike, which I let drop on the floor upon realizing that ooze was getting all over my hand.

"Yup." Link said. "Mia pulled it out."

"You were right to remove it. If it had remained in the wound, it may have caused an infection." Anjean analyzed. I would have said 'told ya' to Link if I hadn't been so sleepy.

"So...should we sleep here tonight?" Link asked. “The train seats are comfy enough in the passenger car.”

"Yes. You youngsters should get some rest." Anjean said, wheeling around the room and blowing out candles as she went. I would have objected to being called a youngster, but again, I was tremendously sleepy. And plus, everybody is probably a youngster to her.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I had some weird dreams that night.

I was standing in a strange room not unlike Dark Link's room in the Water Temple of Ocarina Of Time. The palm tree was still there, though. Along with a figure, who stalked towards me and turned out to be Byrne. Without his gauntlet.

“W-what do you want!?” I felt scared. He was so tall and intimidating. 

"You must bring out your power once again. You could have been killed at the Ocean Temple."

"Why does it matter to you if I'm killed or not?" True, I hadn't put much effort into finding out what was up with the swirly symbol on my hand, but if figuring it out was as easy as he made it seem, I probably would have by now. Byrne's eyes flashed.

"I will see you soon. Help you regain your power," He half turned, and I could see his well-muscled profile in the mist. "Mia. You are the key."

"What does that mean?" I muttered.

"Mia." He said again, and I detected a faint accent that I couldn't put my finger on. "Mia."

"What?" I finally said, as my surroundings began to fade into blackness.

"Mia!"

A beam of sunlight hit me straight in the eyes when I made the mistake of opening them.

I squinted up at Link. "What?"

"Just how long were you planning to lie there like a blob of Chu Chu jelly? We're all ready to go!" Zelda said.

"I brought you your other clothes that dried out," Link said, pointing to the seat across from me. 

“Thanks.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

“Here is the reenergized fire rail map," Anjean said cheerfully rolling down the aisle and handing me the final slab of stone.

“Thank you!” I yawned, then stood up. 

"The mountain is prone to erupt this time of the year, so be on the lookout for falling rock and debris.” She warned.

“Got it!” I smiled, and made my way over to the cannon. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Rocks!" Zelda shouted as we drove up the steep side of Death Mountain.

A smoky haze filled the air, along with my lungs. "It looks like we'll have to go through Goron Village to get to the Fire Sanctuary, Link." I coughed, my eyes watering from the heat as a large, flaming boulder smacked into the ground an arm's length away. This smoky boiling place was almost worse than the cold snow realm! 

"I hope we don't get hit by anything," Link said, nervously scanning the sky.

We approached Goron Village, which had a lot of smoke rising from it, I noticed with mild concern.

"A train! Oh goodness! We are saved!" A young Goron spotted us pulling into the station and started hopping from one foot to another. "Fountains of lava have erupted all over, and now block the entrance into our village, goro! You have to help us!" 

More Gorons came over, murmuring things.

"I bet something really cold would do the trick."

"Hmm, does something that cold even exist? Certainly not in this realm."

"What about the Anoukis? Might they have something you could bring back to us?”

“Oh no, not the snow realm again!” I moaned. 

“I-I guess we could check in the snow realm.” Link said, and cheers erupted from all around us. 

Zelda looked over at me. "How are we going to transport ice?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The Gorons ended up hooking us up to a cargo car, and it took forEVER to get to the snow realm and back. 

Later, we were back with a load of ice. The Gorons formed a chain, blocks of ice passing from hand to hand until it was all tossed onto the lava fountains with a hiss. Steam billowed everywhere, and when it cleared, the bubbling lava was no more. The Gorons were now able to go back to their boring cave houses and roam in and out of the village freely! 

"Thank you, brothers!" Multiple Gorons said multiple times, which made me giggle. 

We got off the train and walked through the village and located a sign that said: 'Fire Sanctuary: Ahead. Altar of the Mountain Goddess: Left'

"Mia, why don't you go find the elder and let him know that the village is safe?" Link said. "We can meet back here later." 

“Okay. I guess I could explore a bit!”

I followed the windy trail slightly upwards, going at a pretty steady pace until I took a wrong turn and ended up in a circle-shaped area. A dead end. I grumbled in annoyance and turned to leave, but found my path blocked as someone jumped down out of nowhere in a blur of black.

“Ahh!" I shouted in surprise as Byrne slowly stood, his gauntlet hand gauntlet-free... 

"I told you I'd see you soon," Byrne said, as if it that made jumping out of nowhere justifiable. He came forwards. "Didn't I?"

“You...you said that in my dream," I stuttered, moving backwards as he advanced.

"Use your power and attack me." He demanded.

“W-what? I don’t want to attack you.”

"Do it!" He growled.

My pulse thundered and I shut my eyes, digging my fingernails into my palm.

Maybe… maybe if I could figure out how to control the freaky power to use it against him, maybe I could make him go away. Make him leave me alone.  
Then, Byrne's calloused hand clamped around my throat, breaking my thoughts. What was he doing?! Was he trying to kill me?! My eyes flew open as he squeezed hard, his fingers encircling my neck almost completely. I struggled.

"You're not trying," He said, stepping on my toes. Pressure built behind my eyes and in my face. My lungs strained. I pulled at his hand. I slapped. I kicked. I punched at his arms and chest, unable to reach his head. But it didn't matter. None of it mattered. Going up against Byrne was like trying to beat up an oak tree. My chest burned. Couldn't...breathe...

Byrne leaned close, his nose almost touching mine, the blackness in his eyes going even darker.

"What are you going to do, Mia?"

My arms went limp and he released me with a shove. I stumbled backwards is disbelief, sucking the smoky, muggy air into my oxygen-deprived lungs. 

‘You’re crazy!” My arms went up protectively over my face.

"Fight me." He moved too quickly for me to defend myself. A boot to the back of my knee sent me crumbling to the ground.

"I thought you weren’t going to try to kill me," I forced out through my sore throat.

Byrne narrowed his eyes, telling me with a look exactly how much damage he could do. The gleam in his dark eyes scared me enough that I stepped forward and raised my hand, hoping that I could draw this out until Link or someone came looking for me. Byrne raised his arm in response, like he thought I was trying to attack him by raising my arm. "No. Attack me...with your mind."

“W-what? I don't know how.” I was so confused. “This doesn’t make any sense! Why won’t you just leave me alone?” 

I was about to scream for Link when Byrne moved in a blur, so fast I didn't have time to tense before he had spun me around and shoved me against the far wall, one arm twisted behind my back. The side of my face scraped against the rock and shock stole my breath.

He was too close. I was trapped completely. A sick feeling rolled over my stomach as Byrne chuckled softly. “Completely… completely helpless. Poor little girl.” He sounded amused. 

My fear turned to panic. My body went stiff, bracing against the inevitable rise of power.

Damn you, Byrne!

It rushed the rest of the way in. I twisted from Byrne's hold, vaguely acknowledging that he let me, and grabbed his neck. Our gazes locked as a tingling sensation shot down my arm and into my hand. I cried out, finally finding the strength to shove Byrne back with a surge of purple. Then it was over. The power retreated, leaving me slumped against the wall. Byrne stood very still, his eyes bored into mine, intense, but somehow calm and confident.

"Now that we know your power stirs from fear and adrenaline, we have something to work with. Don't make me push you that far again. It's...distasteful. Soon you'll be able to control it without giving in to those unnecessary emotions. But-" He shrugged- "I suppose it's a good enough start."

I just stood there, staring at him, scared and shocked and amazed. “What… what just happened?”

"To get into the temple, you must gather the three keys from the birds." Byrne began backing away, his gaze lingering before he turned and walked away, disappearing down the path.

"So now you're helping us now? Whose side are you on?" I demanded. After taking a moment to recover and noticing that my hand was glowing once again, albeit faintly, I got up and began walking down the path. Moments later I collided with a big grey Goron.

"Hello there! And who might you be?" He asked kindly.

"Did you see anybody…..” I hesitated. “Never mind. Are you the village elder? I was supposed to tell you that the village can now be accessed again." I said. The Goron laughed merrily, the already noticeable smile lines becoming quite pronounced.

"So the Goddess has heard my prayers! Thank you, my child. I was beginning to lose hope." I smiled and walked back to the village with him, where Link and Zelda were waiting. Link smiled upon seeing me, and I managed to smile back, although I was still slightly in shock from the whole Byrne encounter.

How was he always able to disappear so quickly without anybody else noticing him? 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"So, apparently to get into the temple we have to get three keys from some birds that should be flying around here." I told Link and Zelda when they returned from the fire sanctuary and we were all back on the train and out of the village.

"Where did you hear that?" Zelda asked. 

"Um, around the village." I said vaguely. Technically, that was true.

"I wonder how to get the keys from them?" Link said as something bird-shaped flew towards us.

"Do you still have that pinwheel thing? Maybe you could use it to make the bird drop the key, and then use your boomerang to get it." Zelda suggested. “Mia, why don’t you switch from canon to pinwheel for a while?” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It worked! 

We used the keys to open a weird door at the fire temple with three keyholes in it. For some reason, the air felt significantly warmer inside the temple than outside. The cause of this, I discovered as we walked inside, was an innocent, bubbling lava pit.

“That look pretty dangerous…” I remarked.

"Look at that mine cart over there," Zelda pointed. "And those tracks!" Strangely enough, a mine car was sitting on tracks that corkscrewed upwards and circled the pit, supported on stilts of metal that went down into the lava.

"Cool!" Link trotted over to the rusty car and pulled out a bow and a quiver of arrows. I guess the weapons had been rigged or something, because there was a familiar rumbling and a rock monster ascended from the pool. It glared at Link and I with its one eyeball. I stared as it bent down and roared in our faces, causing our hair to blow back behind us. After it was done venting, it leaned back and flaunted a bunch of yellow spots that were placed randomly around its body.

“Hey Link! Try using that bow and arrows!” I suggested.

A giant rock fist smashed into the ground, right where I was standing. Or rather, had been standing until Link had thrown himself at me and pushed me out of the way. We landed in the mine cart, which decided to start moving due to unknown forces.

“At least you’re not staying in one spot" Zelda shouted up to us as we were carried further and further up the rickety tracks. “That would just give him an easier target!”  
I raised my head slowly above the edge of the wobbly car. 

"Eeek!" I shrieked as the Cyclops’s eye glared down at me. "Link! Get him!" A little awkwardly, Link nocked an arrow and aimed at the monster's eye, but missed and hit him in one of the yellow areas instead.

"That works too!" Zelda said as the cyclops gave a shriek and swatted at the cart with one of his bulky hands. I ducked, but Link was a little slow. Consequently, he got knocked out, and fell on the ground, but luckily not in the lava. I was now left alone with the bow and a few arrows.

“Link! I don’t know what to do!” I cried.

"Shoot those yellow areas!” Link panted.

“O-okay..!” I delicately picked the bow up and attempted to shoot an arrow. It missed. After a few more practice times, I was able to get the whole aiming thing down, and I shot a rapid-fire of arrows at the cyclops, actually hitting the yellow spots once in awhile. When I had managed to hit all of them, the cyclops stopped tormenting Link and faced me again; I cringed at his giant eyeball.

"Hit him in the eye!" Zelda hollered.

"C'mon Mia! You can do it!" Link shouted, unsheathing his sword. Taking the last arrow, I notched it and let it go straight into that disgusting eyeball. Blinded by the arrow, the cyclops gave a bellow and slammed face first into the ground.

"Yeah! Go Link!" I cheered, getting slightly nauseous from riding around in circles as Link went into the whole hacking final blow routine with his sword. When it was done, the monster dramatically sunk back into the pool of lava. Link wiped the sweat off his forehead. Zelda flew circles around him and beamed. The inverted triangle of power pillar rose out of the center of the lava, and when the mine cart came to a stop back at the bottom of the track, I got out and joined Link and Zelda at the pillar.


End file.
